MAJURO — Marshall Islands and U.S. negotiators have agreed to again delay the next round of formal negotiations on future Compact of Free Association funding.
The talks have been put off from the first week of April to the end of April or early May, according to a U.S. official here who said the reason for the delay is that the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has told the State Department negotiating team that it needs additional time to review the funding proposal submitted earlier this month by the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands issued a funding plan to the U.S. seeking $68 million annually—or about $1 billion—for the 15-year extension under negotiation.
The negotiators are under the gun of a tight timetable. With guaranteed U.S. funding to the Marshall Islands expiring next year, a new agreement needs to be submitted to the U.S. Congress in fewer than six months in order for it to be fitted into the congressional budget cycle for review and adoption.
Meanwhile, Marshall Islands and U.S. negotiators are holding three days of technical discussions in Washington, D.C. with U.S. officials on various Compact-related subsidiary agreements. The meetings aimed to move five subsidiary agreements closer to approval as part of the overall renegotiation of Compact funding provisions.
Under discussion in Washington are agreements on telecommunications, services provided by the U.S. Postal Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation and the National Weather Service. The three days of talks were expected to wrap up on Thursday.
U.S. Ambassador Mike Senko said Tuesday that the next formal round of talks had been put back to the late-April or early-May period because of a request by OMB for additional time to review the Marshall Islands funding plan. The talks are expected to happen shortly before or immediately after similar talks taking place with officials from the neighboring Federated States of Micronesia. The next round will be held in Majuro.
This round was originally set for late February, but has now been delayed twice: first to accommodate the Marshall Islands need for more time to complete its budget request, and now to allow for an official U.S. reply.
