Majuro — Marshall Islands officials have reacted with concern over a U.S. State Department position paper posted on its Web site that argues against higher levels of funding sought by the Marshall Islands in funding negotiations currently in progress.
The State Department uses a “Fact Sheet,” titled “U.S. Proposes Amended Compact of Free Association Funding for the Republic of the Marshall Islands,” to criticize Marshall Islands negotiating points about the key Kwajalein missile range and future funding to this central Pacific nation.
The Marshall Islands is seeking $68 million annually in U.S. grant assistance for 15 years, while the U.S. has countered with an offer of $31.8 million.
Among the State Department’s points:
• $13 million now paid annually to landowners for use of the Kwajalein missile range should be defined as “economic assistance,” not rent.
• the Marshall Islands is actually receiving more in U.S. grant assistance on a per capita basis than its neighbor, the Federated States of Micronesia, not 25-30 percent less as the Marshall Islands contends.
The Marshall Islands’ position is inaccurate, says the State Department, because by “including Kwajalein assistance currently totaling $13 million per year, the Marshall Islands’ per capita assistance is $784 compared to $782 for the FSM for FY 2003.”
The State Department calls the Marshall Islands’ calculation of per capita differences as “misleading.” The Marshall Islands’ calculation is based on deducting the “economic assistance related to the use of Kwajalein from the amount of assistance the Marshall Islands receives,” the State Department fact sheet says.
“Kwajalein assistance…is intended to benefit the people of Kwajalein Atoll,” said the State Department. “Since it is assistance, it should be included in the assistance total.”
Marshall Islands government officials said in interviews yesterday that they weren’t surprised that the U.S. government has begun issuing public statements to put its spin on the funding renegotiations, but were surprised at the U.S. position on Kwajalein payments that go directly to landowners as rental for the Kwajalein missile range.
Both Compact negotiator Robert Muller and Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios dismissed the U.S. contention that Kwajalein funding is “economic assistance.” They pointed out that the $13 million annual payment does not go the government, but is a direct payment to the landowners in exchange for using their lands for missile testing. Kwajalein is a unique, $4 billion U.S. testing range that is playing a key role in the Bush administration’s push for a deployable missile defense system.
Muller said since the State Department issued the document on the Internet last week, the Marshall Islands has had a legal analysis prepared on the rent issue in an effort to make its point more clearly.
The State Department also says that the Marshall Islands in its per capita calculation is ignoring other significant benefits that accrue to the Marshall Islands as a result of Kwajalein.
