Pacific Island States get COFA Funding, Finally

The Compact of Free Association, (COFA) the $7.1 billion aid package for Palau, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia was passed by the Senate on Friday, ensuring the US militarty access to the region and signalling Washington's commitment to the region.  

The Package was approved 75 to 22 as part of a six-bill package funding the government through the end of the fiscal year September 30.  The COFA agreements were renewd las September, but funding had been delayed by congressional inaction.

Funding broke free when House negotiators included the Compact funding in their legislation last week "To Counter Communist China [11850]"

Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) described the strategic import of the funding:

“Our network of partners and allies – including these three island nations in the Pacific – are among our county’s greatest comparative strengths relative to the dictatorships in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran,” he said in an interview with The Financial Times.

Japan’s ambassador to the US Shigeo Yamada sent a letter to congressional leadership including House Speaker Mike Johnson, stressing that the pacts were “vital to secure the region’s peace and stability”.

“We emphasize the importance of Cofa not only for the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau but also its significance for all like-minded partners,” he said.

Washington’s delay in providing economic help to the Pacific island nation Palau has made some local leaders more willing to drop diplomatic ties to Taiwan in exchange for Beijing’s financial assistance.

“The leaders here (some of whom have done ‘business’ with the PRC) who want to accept its seemingly attractive economic offers – at the cost of shifting alliances, beginning with sacrificing Taiwan,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr wrote in a letter dated February 9. according to The South China Morning Post.

Ely Ratner, assistant Defense secretary for Indo-Pacific security affairs, testified that this legislation will maintain America's commitment to the Freely Associated States.

"The U.S. military's access and posture in the Pacific Islands are crucial for our logistics, sustainment and power projection throughout the region. Moreover, hundreds of billions of dollars in maritime trade flow through the Pacific Islands and our partners there provide critical linkages between the continental United States and our allies across the Indo-Pacific," he said.

Other Pacific islands are also important to DOD's Pacific defense posture, he said, mentioning Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea and American Samoa. 

Last year, the U.S. and Papua New Guinea signed a "landmark" Defense Cooperation Agreement, he noted. 

House Foreign Affairs Committee leadership issued the following statement on the Compact's funding:

"We welcome the passage of the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act in a recent appropriations package. The Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Republic of Palau are important U.S. partners, and we have a longstanding history of security, people-to-people, and cultural ties.

"COFA provides a renewed commitment from the United States to these partners for the next twenty years, and underscores U.S. dedication to keeping the Western Pacific free, prosperous, and secure."