New PNA Office CEO Dr. Sangaa Clark, her husband Les Clark and MIMRA Director Glen Joseph made a courtesy call on President David Kabua and his Cabinet members earlier in the month. The RMI is playing two roles in relation to the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, said Joseph: As a member of the PNA […]
President David Kabua nominated Ebon Nitijela Member John Silk to Cabinet Tuesday, and Speaker Kenneth Kedi confirmed the nomination late Tuesday afternoon. This is the President’s second appointment of a former opposition Nitijela Member to his Cabinet, a development that largely blurs political lines in Nitijela, giving the President wide latitude to choose from the […]
WILMER JOEL As a proclamation by US President Joe Biden proclaimed Memorial Day on May 31, 2021 for those in the American Armed Forces who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service their countries, a memorial day event was held at the Marshall Islands Resort (MIR), with the raising of the flag as the start […]
The Nitijela adopted a resolution in support of the Rongelap Atoll Special Administrative Region (RASAR) late in the evening March 20, the night it wrapped up the first session of 2020. The resolution declares that “Nitijela views with favor the idea of creating a special administrative region on Rongelap Atoll in order to promote investment […]
Before wrapping up its final session in late September and dissolving, Nitijela passed a number of bills. These include: • Postal Services Amendment Act. This clarifies roles of the board and Minister responsible, as well as strengthening “the appearance of the independence of the (Postal) Authority,” according to the bill’s summary. • Import Duties Amendment […]
At the margin of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIFS) Leaders meeting last week in Tuvalu, President Hilda Heine met with Jerry Velasquez, Director of the Green Climate Fund’s Division of Mitigation and Adaptation. The meeting was to discuss the on-going GCF program, in particular the Water and Coastal Adaptation Program in the Marshall Islands. President […]
KELLY LORENNIJ The Micronesian region is transitioning to sustainable ocean transport for inter-island services, a move that is spearheaded by the Micronesian Center for Sustainable Transport that is based in the University of the South Pacific in the Marshall Islands. The Center’s Michael Traut outlined the steps that are being taken to make this transition […]
GIFF JOHNSON World War II battlegrounds, 1950s hydrogen bomb test sites, and prized real estate controlled by the United States during the Cold War era with the former Soviet Union, the islands of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands in the north Pacific were relegated to backwater outposts the past three decades […]
GIFF JOHNSON The big news coming from several hours of meetings on Pohnpei Monday between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and President Hilda Heine and leaders of the FSM and Palau is Pompeo’s announcement that negotiations to extend Compact funding agreements have begun. The post-2023 period, when US grant funding for RMI and FSM […]
GIFF JOHNSON The Marshall Islands Foreign Minister questioned the accuracy of the latest US State Department trafficking in persons report on the Marshall Islands, which demoted RMI to Tier 2 Watch List, the last step before the so-called blacklist of Tier 3. RMI was ranked Tier 2 in last year’s State Department report. The report, […]
