Vice President Elias Camsek Chin met with Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in Honolulu, Hawaii last week .Chin met Kempthorne during the two-day international conference on the future of health care in Palau.
Chin during the discussion asked the Secretary to assist Palau in reaching a positive result from the Compact Review and also inquired about increasing financial assistance for health care in Palau.Chin thanked Kempthorne for the grant.“The relationship between the United States and Palau is one that is very close and aid grants such as this one help to cement the relationship between our two countries,” Chin said. Following the meeting with Secretary Kempthorne, Chin met with James Peake, theSecretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, and David Chu, the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. During the meeting with Under Secretary Chu, Chin also asked that the Department of Defense review its policies relating to security clearances for Palauans who join a military service and provide Palau with information about how many Palauans are working for the department. Under SecretaryChu said that he would look into these requests and reply to Chin before he leaves office in January 2009.Also attending the conference were Hersey Kyota, Palau’s ambassador to the United States, Angaur Governor Horace Rafael, as well as Doctors Stevenson Kuartei and Gregory Dever. Also attending was Greg Ngirmang, CEO of the Palau Social Security Administration.
