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☆ Marshall Islands Says US Must Address Nuclear Legacy for Deal on Future Ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Sept. | At P.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +3 min

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The president of the Marshall Islands said on Wednesday his Pacific island nation was "cautiously optimistic" it could soon finalize a deal on future ties with the United States, but repeated a call for Washington to address the legacy of massive nuclear testing in the 1940s and 50s. The Marshall Islands is one of three sparsely populated Pacific island nations covered by so-called Compacts of Free Association (COFAs) with the United States. The foreign minister of the Marshall Islands called in July for more U.S. money to deal with the nuclear legacy to enable the renewal of its COFA, the economic terms of which expire on Sept. 30. Marshall Islands President David Kabua told the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York his country wanted to continue its free association with the United States but Washington "must realize that the Marshallese people require that the nuclear issue will be addressed." Chief U.S. negotiator Joseph Yun has proposed Congress approve the total amount by Sept. 30, even without a final agreement with the Marshall Islands.

Persons: David Kabua, MOUs, Joseph Yun, East Asia Daniel Kritenbrink, Joe Biden, David Brunnstrom, Lincoln Organizations: UNITED NATIONS, Reuters, Marshall, Free Association, Pacific, United Nations General Assembly, Chief, East Asia, Marshall Islanders, U.S, White Locations: United States, Washington, Marshall, U.S, Micronesia, Palau, China, Pacific, New York, Bikini

☆ Google and the Department of Defense are building an AI-powered microscope to help doctors spot cancer
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Zafar turned to his microscope – a canonically beloved tool in pathology that the doctors rely on to help make their diagnoses. It's an artificial intelligence-powered microscope built by Google and the U.S. Department of Defense. The AI-powered tool is called an Augmented Reality Microscope, or ARM, and Google and the Department of Defense have been quietly working on it for years. When a glass slide is prepared and fixed under the microscope, the AI is able to outline where cancer is located. For many smaller health systems, digitization is not yet worth the hassle.

Persons: Niels Olson, Nadeem Zafar, Zafar, Zafar's, Mitre Ashley Capoot, Mitre, it's, Ashley Capoot, CNBC Patrick Minot, Minot, Olson, It's, Aashima Gupta, Gupta Organizations: Microscope, U.S . Department of Defense, Google, CNBC, ARM, Department of Defense, Mitre, Minot, Defense Innovation Unit, U.S . Navy, Naval, Naval Medical Center Locations: Seattle, Mitre, Washington ,, DIU, Guam, U.S, Micronesia, San Diego, Mountain View , California

☆ US lawmakers back closer coordination with Pacific islands to counter China
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( David Brunnstrom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The sparsely populated nations, whose territories cover vast areas of the Pacific, have relations with the United States governed by so-called Compacts of Free Association. "The strategic location of these islands is integral to our national security, but the lack of direct security channels between our nations creates risk," she added. An Ernst aide said Palau had already established a national security council and the other COFA states were actively considering doing so. He noted that the U.S. has significant military installations on the islands, including high-powered radar on Palau and its main long-range missile testing site in the Marshall Islands. The councils would comprise members of respective COFA states and make use of Pentagon-approved communications equipment to prevent Chinese espionage and allow sharing of intelligence, he said.

Persons: reconvenes, Leah Millis, Joni Ernst, Beijing's, Democrats Mazie Hirono, Tim Kaine, Chris Van Hollen, Ernst, Palau, Joni Ernst's, David Brunnstrom, Louise Heavens Organizations: U.S . Capitol, Republican, REUTERS, Defense, Marshall, Free Association, U.S, Reuters, Democrats, Pentagon, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, China, Palau, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, United States, Washington, Marshall, Pacific, U.S, Solomon Islands

☆ Biden nominates China specialist to be ambassador to strategic Marshall Islands
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, July 11 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Tuesday nominated a senior career diplomat to be U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands, a strategic Pacific territory that has become a focus for competition with China. A Chinese speaker, Stone also worked previously as coordinator of efforts to counter Chinese malign economic influence and as acting deputy assistant secretary for China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia. Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats have been courting the region and China's construction and mining companies have expanded their business in Pacific island nations. In May, the U.S. said it had renewed COFA terms with Micronesia and Palau and its chief negotiator told Reuters then he hoped to finalize a deal with the Marshall Islands, whose COFA is due to expire this year, in coming weeks. Last year, more than 100 arms-control, environmental and other activist groups urged the Biden administration to formally apologize to the Marshall Islands and provide fair compensation.

Persons: Joe Biden, Laura Stone, Stone, China's, Biden, David Brunnstrom, Sandra Maler Organizations: State Department's Office, Free Association, Washington, Marshall, Reuters, Marshall Islanders, U.S, Thomson Locations: Marshall, China, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mongolia, U.S, Pacific, Micronesia, Palau, Bikini

He warned that contaminated medicines could still be found for several years, because adulterated barrels of an essential ingredient may remain in warehouses. Cough syrups and the ingredient, propylene glycol, both have shelf-lives of around two years. Unscrupulous actors sometimes substitute propylene glycol with toxic alternatives, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, because they are cheaper, several pharmaceutical manufacturing experts told Reuters. The WHO said it has also offered help to Liberia and Cameroon – which recently signalled that it too may have contaminated cough syrups for sale. The contaminated syrups in Liberia were made by India's Synercare Mumbai, according to the Nigerian regulator.

Persons: Rutendo Kuwana, Kuwana, –, syrups, Naresh Kumar Goyal, QP Pharmachem, India's Synercare, Synercare, It's, Jennifer Rigby, Krishna N.Das, Edward McAllister, Stanley Widianto, Sumit Khanna, Sophie Yu, Sara Ledwith, Michele Gershberg Organizations: World Health Organization, WHO, Reuters, Pharmaceutical, Marshall, Indonesian, –, PT Universal Pharmaceutical Industries, AFI, Pharmaceuticals, Marion Biotech, Maiden Pharmaceuticals, Thomson Locations: LIBERIA, CAMEROON, Liberia, Nigeria, Gambia, Uzbekistan, Micronesia, Indonesian, – Timor Leste, Cambodia, Senegal, Philippines, Cameroon, syrups, Marshall Islands, India's Synercare Mumbai, Nigerian, Liberian, India, Panama, Delhi, Dakar, Jakarta, Ahmedabad, Beijing

TOKYO, June 15 (Reuters) - The Pacific island nation of Palau has asked the United States to step up patrols of its waters after several recent incursions by Chinese vessels into its exclusive economic zone, President Surangel Whipps Jr. told Reuters in an interview. Palau identified Chinese vessels in its waters as recently as last month, when a ship appeared to be surveying an area near fibre optic cables vital to the country's communications, Whipps Jr. said. He said he would raise the issue of the incursions at the regional Pacific Islands Forum leaders meeting in November. The plan has been criticised by some local fishermen and neighbouring countries, including South Korea, China, and some Pacific island nations. But Whipps Jr. said he was not opposed to the plan and that he sensed regional resistance was also waning.

Persons: Surangel Whipps Jr, Whipps Jr, Whipps, Lloyd Austin, We've, Sakura Murakami, John Geddie, Michael Perry Organizations: Reuters, Pentagon, Pacific Islands Forum, U.S . Defense, U.S, ichi, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, Palau, United States, Washington, Beijing, Tokyo, Micronesia, Marshall, China, Solomon, U.S, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Japan, South Korea

☆ South Korea hosts its first summit with Pacific island leaders
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, May 29 (Reuters) - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol begins the country's first summit with leaders of Pacific islands on Monday, as Seoul seeks to increase its influence in a region that has become the focus of intense geopolitical rivalry. The South Korean president held bilateral talks with some of the visiting Pacific leaders over the weekend including Kiribati President Taneti Maamau and Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape. Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles will also attend the Korea-Pacific Islands Summit, his office said on Saturday, adding it would show cooperation between the 18 members of the Pacific Island Forum and South Korea for a secure region. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged more trade and development assistance in a summit with a dozen Pacific island leaders in Papua New Guinea (PNG) last week. The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken also signed a defence agreement with PNG after a Pacific summit.

☆ For These Veterans, ‘Free’ Health Care Is a 5-Hour Flight Away
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Pete Mckenzie | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ovenny Jermeto was on a combat tour 7,000 miles away from his island home in the Pacific when a bomb blew up his vehicle in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. He survived and completed his deployment, but later lost feeling in his right foot and struggled with anxiety and depression. He returned to the United States to finish his enlistment, eventually getting discharged on medical grounds. Thousands of foreign citizens enlist in the U.S. military every year; hundreds of them are from Micronesia, a result of the country’s close ties to the United States. According to the State Department, the regional rate of enlistment is double the rate in the United States, with almost 1 percent of Micronesians serving.

☆ How Pacific Islanders in the US are keeping in touch with their culture through dance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Rachel Ramirez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

“One, two, three,” Hernandez, founder of the Pacific Islander dance group Lei Pasifika, yells out. “It makes them less homesick.”According to the US Census Bureau, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders were the fastest growing ethnic population in the US from 2020 to 2021. And in big cities with a large Pacific Islander presence, like New York, Portland, Oregon, and San Diego, many US-born Pacific Islanders as well as transplants are keeping their culture alive through dance. It’s a way for Pacific Islanders, especially young people, “to find themselves” and get connected with their ethnic identity and cultures, she notes. Mann says they noticed a growing number of Pacific Islanders, including those who aren’t Native Pacific Islanders but grew up in the islands, wanting to learn more about the culture and participate in dances.

☆ US to sign strategic pacts with two Pacific states, hopes for third in weeks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( David Brunnstrom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, May 20 (Reuters) - The United States will sign new strategic pacts with the Pacific island states of Palau and Micronesia early next week and hopes to do so with the Marshall islands in coming weeks, the U.S. presidential envoy negotiating the deals said. As anticipated, he was unable to conclude the deal with the Marshall Islands. "We have made progress over my three-day visit to Marshall Islands and we hope to sign an agreement with the Marshall Islands in the coming weeks," he said. Chinese diplomats have been courting the region and China's construction and mining companies have expanded their business in many Pacific island nations. Yun said last month "topline" agreements would provide the three COFA states with a total of about $6.5 billion over 20 years.

☆ Six Pacific countries at high risk of debt distress - World Bank
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

To match Feature PACIFIC-JUSTICE/ REUTERS/Lincoln FeastWELLINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - Six Pacific countries are at a high risk of debt distress in part due to government spending to respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the World Bank said in a report on Thursday. Among other countries in the region, Vanuatu is rated at medium risk, while Palau and Nauru’s debt is sustainable, the report noted. The World Bank last month said that Fiji must also take urgent action to reduce its debt burden. Stephen Ndegwa, World Bank Country Director for Papua New Guinea & the Pacific Islands, said reducing debt, strengthening revenue and improving the quality of government spending are critical areas for Pacific countries to address. It also said that Pacific countries should allocate more to social assistance and protection measures.

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and federal and state regulators attended the session in February, according to a statement from the health ministry that did not mention cough syrups. A source with knowledge of the matter said the policy change could mean increased oversight of India's $41 billion pharmaceutical industry, which is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines. Increased testing of cough syrups as well as of raw materials for drugs in general is one of the steps being considered, said the source. India has acted against a second Indian company whose cough syrups were linked to the deaths of 19 kids in Uzbekistan, including the arrest of three of its employees. Indian health officials have expressed concern that the incidents of contaminated syrups will harm its pharmaceutical industry.

Afterward, he was to have been the first sitting U.S. president to visit Papua New Guinea. In Sydney, Biden had planned to attend a meeting of the four so-called Quad nations - the United States, Japan, Australia and India. White House spokesperson John Kirby said Biden would be able to meet Albanese and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while in Hiroshima. Albanese said in a statement that Biden had apologized for not being able to visit Australia and that they would work to reschedule his visit at the earliest opportunity. “I'm sure the White House will find ways to make this up to partners in the short term.

☆ US opens embassy in Tonga in new pushback against China in Pacific
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - The United States has opened a new embassy in Tonga, the State Department said on Tuesday, part of efforts to step up the U.S. diplomatic presence in the Pacific region to counter China. The United States "officially opened the U.S. Embassy in Nuku'alofa on May 9, 2023," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. Miller said the embassy would allow Washington to deploy additional diplomatic personnel and resources, including the potential appointment of a resident ambassador to Tonga, with which the United States has had diplomatic relations since 1972. Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced in March it had awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara. The United States and regional allies Australia and New Zealand have had concerns that China has ambitions to build a naval base in the region since the Solomon Islands struck a security pact with Beijing last year.

The World Health Organization said last year the syrups, made by Indian manufacturer Maiden Pharmaceuticals Ltd, contained lethal toxins ethylene glycol (EG) and diethylene glycol (DEG) – used in car brake fluid. "If you ask and you don't get informed, it's a dead end," Rutendo Kuwana, the WHO's team lead for incidents with substandard and falsified medicines, told Reuters in an interview on March 31. Drug inspectors found a dozen violations at Maiden last October related to the production of the cough syrups sold to Gambia, a government document showed. Among these, some of the COAs of raw ingredients used in making the syrups, including propylene glycol, were missing batch numbers. Kuwana said the WHO was sure of its own cough syrup test results from two separate independent laboratories, both of which showed contamination.

☆ U.S. negotiator says Biden would be warmly welcomed in Pacific
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - The United States needs to accelerate diplomatic "catch up" with the Pacific island region in the face of Chinese competition, a U.S. diplomat said on Friday, adding that he was sure President Joe Biden would be warmly welcomed there if he decided to visit. "Obviously for the Pacific, I am sure they would welcome President Biden, if he were to go there," Yun told the Hudson Institute. A Pacific islands source told Reuters that Biden was also expected to meet with more than a dozen Pacific islands leaders, but the White House National Security Council has not responded to request for comment on the plans. Yun said the level of Chinese coercion in the region that is crucial to U.S. national security, but that had been neglected by the United States, is concerning. "So now we're playing ... a little bit of catch up, I would say, and but you know, we need to accelerate our catch up."

☆ U.S. and China wage war beneath the waves – over internet cables
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +28 min

Three of China’s state-owned carriers – China Telecommunications Corporation (China Telecom), China Mobile Limited and China United Network Communications Group Co Ltd (China Unicom) – had committed funding as members of the consortium, which also included U.S.-based Microsoft Corp and French telecom firm Orange SA, according to six people involved in the deal. China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom and Orange did not respond to requests for comment. China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom were resolutely behind HMN Tech, which had come in with a bid of around $500 million. China Telecom and China Mobile threatened to walk off the project, taking tens of millions of dollars of investment with them. Among them is China Telecom, which had previously won authorization to provide services in the United States.

☆ U.S. aims for over $7 billion in aid for 20-year Pacific islands compacts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Under those pacts, first agreed in the 1980s, the United States retains responsibility for the islands' defense and exclusive access to huge swaths of the Pacific. Current COFA provisions expire in 2024 for Palau, and later in 2023 for the Marshall Islands and the FSM. That included $6.5 billion in direct economic assistance and $634 million for the unfunded costs of extending the U.S. Postal Service in the three island countries, she said. "Absent the new economic assistance provisions, we really leave the three countries open to predatory behavior, coercive behavior," she said, alluding to China's efforts to court Pacific island countries.

☆ Pacific's Micronesia in talks to switch ties from Beijing to Taiwan- letter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Kirsty Needham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

We can and will receive this, over a three year period, if and when we establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan," he wrote. In the letter, Panuelo accused China of waging "political warfare" in his country, and bribing his government's officials. Beijing and Taiwan have a history of competing in the Pacific islands, where four of Taiwan's 14 diplomatic allies are located. Two Pacific island nations, Kiribati and Solomon Islands, cut diplomatic ties with democratically ruled Taiwan in 2019 after offers of aid from China, which views Taiwan as its own territory. Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Lincoln Feast.

☆ The US military set off its largest nuclear explosion in testing 69 years ago, but scientists had no idea the blast would be that big
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Dozens of nuclear tests were carried out by the US in the Pacific between 1946 and 1958. The largest of these was the detonation of the Castle Bravo device on March 1, 1954. It was 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima during World War II. Castle Bravo was a real 'eyeopener'Despite the devastation caused by Castle Bravo, the US military continued to conducting nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. The US, UK, and Soviet Union signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963, which barred nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere, in outer space, and underwater.

☆ Fukushima wastewater release would have limited impact on South Korean waters - study
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Ju-Min Park | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SEOUL, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The release of waste water from Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant would have a negligible effect on South Korean waters, according to a government study published on Thursday. "That change would be too small to detect," an official at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology said. The analysis comes as South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol is seeking to improve relations with Japan after years of tensions. The water release has raised concerns from neighbouring countries, including China and South Korea. The simulation study has "no connection" to normalising relations between South Korea and Japan, said Oh Haeng-nok, an official at South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

☆ With China looming, U.S. signs MoU with another Pacific island state
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The State Department announcement means Washington has now signed MoUs on future assistance with three key Pacific island countries as it negotiates cooperation agreement renewals that gives the United States access to huge swaths of the Pacific for defense purposes. Washington said it signed MoUs last month with the Marshall Islands and Palau and reached consensus on terms of U.S. economic assistance, but Washington has not provided details. The U.S. move comes as Washington and its allies are concerned about China's military ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region. Under Compacts of Free Association (COFA) first agreed in the 1980s, Washington retains responsibility for the defense of the three island nations while providing them with economic assistance. Though the island nations still enjoy close ties to Washington, critics warn that a failure to finalize economic aid could spur them to look to China for funding or increased trade and tourism.

☆ Coast Guard Looks at More Ships, Innovative Patrols to Ramp Up Pacific Presence
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Mike Cherney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

SYDNEY—During a recent patrol, members of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter’s crew conducted a first-of-its-kind boarding of a fishing vessel in waters off the Federated States of Micronesia. Several months earlier, another cutter traveled thousands of miles from its home port in Guam to northern Australia, in what was considered a first for that type of ship. The missions illustrate how the Coast Guard, which some U.S. officials view as a potent soft-power tool that can advance relationships with Pacific island nations, plans to ramp up activities in a strategic region that has become an arena of great-power rivalry between China and the U.S.

☆ Micronesia to sign extension of U.S. security pact 'soon', President says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Micronesia aims to 'soon' sign an extension of its economic and security pact with the United States, its President David Panuelo said on Friday, a deal seen as important in Washington's efforts to counter Chinese influence in the Pacific. Micronesia is one of three Pacific Island states that has so-called compacts of free association with the United States, which allows Washington exclusive access to airspace and territorial waters in exchange for financial assistance. "Our negotiation team actually will be in (Washington) D.C. soon where the two governments will likely be signing an MOU for the extension of the economic provisions for another 20 years," Panuelo told reporters on a visit to Tokyo. Reporting by John Geddie; Editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. opens embassy in Solomon Islands, Blinken says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The United States has opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands after a 30-year absence as it seeks to boost diplomatic relations in the Pacific as a counter to China. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced plans to open a diplomatic mission in the Pacific island nation during a visit to the region last year. The last U.S. embassy in the Solomons closed in 1993 amid post-Cold War budget cuts and the United States was represented there by an ambassador based in Papua New Guinea. In a statement on Wednesday, Blinken said the State Department informed the Solomon Islands' government that the opening of the new embassy in the capital Honiara became official as of Jan. 27. The reopening of the embassy in the Solomons comes as Washington has been negotiating the renewal of cooperation agreements with three key Pacific island nations, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and Palau.

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