House Minority Leader Diego T. Benavente, R-Saipan, said he welcomes the 13th summit scheduled to be held on June 23 to 25 on Saipan.
“I am excited about this regional summit,” he added.
Benavente helped organized the summit while he was the lt. governor during the Babauta administration.
“It was at a time when me and three of my closest friends, Guam Gov. Felix Camacho, then-President Tommy Remengesau of Palau, and then-Yap Gov. Robert Ruecho felt that a summit was necessary because the issues were very common among the islands,” said Benavente.
He made personal calls to the three who agreed to formally organize the summit with the CNMI, Guam, Palau and Yap as founding members.
“The investment in organizing ourselves as a regional organization benefits each one of us. A story that I heard a long, long time ago, says a piece of stick can be easily broken but if you put a bunch of sticks together, they become harder to break,” Benavente said.
The lawmaker said the summit should enable each island to learn from each other and come up with common solutions for their problems in areas about healthcare, tourism, transportation, environment, economics, among other concerns.
“I don’t think it’s a junket. It’s learning about everybody else. We have the support of the regional government and we’re learning from each other,” he added.
About 100 dignitaries from Guam, the Marshall Islands, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia and its states — Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei and Yap — are expected to join the summit here.
Benavente said there are so many critical issues that can be addressed by the summit like access to fuel and a regional airline that will serve the islands’ tourism-based economies.
