Patrick M. Walsh, Brig. Gen. Richard L. Simcock II, principal director of the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Asia & Pacific and U.S. Agency for International Development assistant administrator for Asia Nisha Desai Biswal visited Pohnpei state.
The visit was part of a six-day Pacific Island tour which included Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the Freely Associated States: Palau, the FSM and the Marshall Islands.
The U.S. delegation, embodying the U.S. “3-D” — Diplomacy, Defense and Development — approach to foreign policy, met with FSM leadership and health and environmental communities to underscore the breadth and depth of the two nations’ relationship.
The U.S. delegation met with FSM President Emanuel “Manny” Mori, members of the executive cabinet, and other senior government officials. Accompanying the U.S. delegation were U.S. Ambassador to the FSM Peter A. Prahar and embassy representatives.
The U.S. delegation then called upon FSM Congress Speaker Isaac Figir, Vice Speaker Berney Martin and Sen. Dohsis Halbert.
Campbell cautioned the FSM on the potential impact of the FSM’s Tier 3 ranking in the 2011 Trafficking-In-Persons Report. He warned that a failure to improve this ranking could limit the FSM’s access to certain U.S. government programs and funding.
Mori and Figir promised to move this session on anti-trafficking legislation.
Campbell welcomed this commitment and noted that full implementation and enforcement of any new legal framework would be equally important.
The delegation further conferred about FSM migration and Compact-Impact in Hawaii and Guam and other parts of the U.S.
In addition, Compact implementation, maritime security, climate change adaptation, and the new USAID Pacific Headquarters in Papua New Guinea were discussed.
Walsh and Simcock expressed the expectation of a successful Pacific Partnership 2011 program in the FSM and especially thanked FSM leadership for the service of its citizens in the U.S. military.
Campbell looked forward to follow up at the Pacific Island Forum in Auckland in September, and promised to make this U.S. high-level Pacific Island Tour an annual event, including other U.S. government agencies.
In route to Kolonia, Biswal visited the USAID disaster storage warehouse in Sokehs. As the lead U.S. agency providing disaster relief and reconstruction to the FSM, USAID stockpiles crisis response supplies for timely access.
Additionally, the U.S. delegation viewed the newly constructed Kolonia Elementary School.
Completed last year, the school was part of a three-school, $4.5 million infrastructure sector grant under the Amended Compact.
Following the school visit, Campbell and his delegation were received by Pohnpei Gov. John Ehsa and Director of Health Services Dr. Elizabeth Keller at the Pohnpei State Public Hospital.
Campbell, joined by Biswal, held a roundtable discussion with environmental non-government organization leaders from the Micronesia Conservation Trust, the Nature Conservancy, the Conservation Society of Pohnpei, and the Island Food Community of Pohnpei.
The conversation highlighted NGO efforts to promote conservation at the local and regional levels, challenges faced by low-lying remote atolls, and tools and support available for effective conservation efforts.
Walsh and Simcock met with the advance team for the Pacific Partnership and toured Ohmine Elementary School, one of the sites slated for construction work next week when the USS Cleveland arrives.
Following these meetings, the U.S. delegation traveled to Pohnpei International Airport, where they met FSM citizen U.S. Army Spc. HB Bermanis, who was injured while serving in Iraq in 2003.
Upon departing Pohnpei, the U.S. delegation headed for the Marshall Islands.
