Palau

This is a question the latest economic review of the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, issued last week, suggests should be asked by officials from these two north Pacific nations.

The Graduate School USA, which produces annual economic reports on these three U.S.-affiliated nations, includes an assessment in the reports of the U.S.-funded national trust funds now being capitalized to provide a funding source to the island governments when U.S grant funding ends after 2023.

Congratulations though may not be in order yet, as people are still puzzling over the changes the Senate made to the House version of the Belau Submarine Cable Corporation bill.

The House bill 9-163, Belau Submarine Cable Corporation (BSCC), seeks to establish a public corporation to procure, own and manage a submarine cable to connect Palau to Guam.

The statement, according to Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu was unanimously supported by all the seven SIS members, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Marshall Islands, Palau and Tuvalu.

For the first time, SIS Leaders met behind closed doors to deliberate issues that concern the grouping, choosing to release a ‘strong’ statement to reflect their unique and special vulnerabilities.

PM Sopoaga told journalists, Small Island States have been advocating strongly for climate change since the early 1990s.

The leaders of the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and Tuvalu caught up on Monday before the wider 16 nation Pacific Island Forum leaders summit in Papua New Guinea later this week.

They issued a special declaration on climate change that demanded the world limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and that countries uphold the principle of polluter pays.

According to documents filed in the U.S. District Court on Thursday, Palauan native Mace Orrukem, who uses the aliases “Mays Ngiraungil” and “Mace Rico Ngiraungil” and is believed to be 23 years old, was charged with several counts of assault. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Saturday.