Landowners at the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll have refused to accept the U.S.-Marshall Islands government agreement to extend a lease for the atoll to 2066, and rental payments in excess of the existing lease provisions have been placed in an escrow account that has grown to $20.7 million since 2004.
But the U.S. Congress set a five-year deadline on getting a new agreement, and December 17 is the date by which a new agreement must be approved by the landowners or the escrow account money returns to the U.S. Treasury.
Foreign Minister Tony deBrum said in an interview Friday he would like the Bush Administration to give U.S. President-elect Barack Obamaıs transition team “the opportunity to look at it before the drop dead deadline.” He says delaying the deadline could help resolve the problem.
But U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Clyde Bishop said this week the agreement for use of Kwajalein to 2066 has been approved by both governments, and the U.S. government expects the Marshall Islands to abide by its terms.
Bishop confirmed that if Kwajalein landowners do not agree to a new land use agreement by Dec. 17, the nearly $21 million now in escrow “will return to the U.S. Treasury.”
DeBrum, who also represents Kwajalein in the parliament, acknowledged there has been no indication from the U.S. government that it is willing to discuss issues in the military use and operating rights agreement in the Compact.
But he says the Marshall Islands government has to be able to offer something to get the landowners to agree to a new lease extending American use of the vital missile defense facility.
“The U.S. says the LUA is between the landowners and the Marshall Islands government,” deBrum said. “But the Marshall Islands canıt just offer what the U.S. has already offered (and the landowners have rejected).”
The Compact of Free Association was renewed in 2004, with annual rent for Kwajalein increased from about $11 million to $15 million. But landowners demanded $19 million, and have not budged from their position. In the meantime, inflation adjustments have increased the annual U.S. rental payments to more than $17 million this year, according to Bishop.
DeBrum said he will be traveling to Washington later this month to see what the U.S. Congress can do on Kwajalein and other issues when it reconvenes.
But last minute engagement from the Bush Administration or the Congress appears unlikely. Bishop says the U.S. government considers the land use agreement an internal matter to be worked out between the Marshall Islands government and Kwajalein landowners. “The U.S. canıt intervene” in the LUA issue, he said.
