U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Martha Campbell flew to Kwajalein earlier this week to be on hand to greet Clinton on her 90-minute stopover, and U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Eric Watnik said Marshall Islands Foreign Minister John Silk is expected to join the welcome for Clinton at the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein.
Kwajalein is a testing range for U.S. missile defense programs, including a planned upcoming test to simulate an Iranian missile launch against the United States.
After stopping at Kwajalein Thursday morning, Clinton will fly to Papua New Guinea for a six-hour stop and then spend two-day visits in both Australia and New Zealand, according to the U.S. Embassy in Majuro. She is the first secretary of state to stop in the Marshall Islands since George P. Shultz, President’s Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, spent time in Majuro in the late 1980s.
During his tenure as president, Clinton’s husband, Bill, also made a stopover in Kwajalein.
