Marshall Islands
U.S. Locks In Kwajalein Through 2006
Breakthrough Takes Place At Hawaii Talks
Months of protracted negotiations to give the United States long-term use of the Kwajalein missile testing range in the Marshall Islands were successfully concluded in late January. An agreement was signed in Honolulu, Hawaii on the evening of January 16th by U.S. negotiator Al Short and Marshalls Foreign Minister Gerald Zackios, only hours before Short was to return to Washington, D.C.
Short and Zackios agreed in principle on a new lease of the Kwajalein range that extends U.S. use through 2066. The current lease is scheduled to end in 2016. The most current round of talks was held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Waikiki.
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Marshalls President Kessai Note initiated the Kwajalein lease rent negotiations in the fall of 2001. A key player for Washington was U.S. Ambassador Michael Senko, who last year took the unprecedented step of meeting directly with Kwajalein landowners. Many political observers believe Senko’s direct talks helped move the negotiations forward.
The U.S.-Marshalls agreement provides for an option to extend the new 50-year lease by another 20 years beyond 2066. The U.S. has agreed to compensate Kwajalein landowners beginning in October 2003 at a level of $15 million per year with an increase to a new base of $18 million in 2014. A trust fund will also be set up “to ensure the long-term welfare of the people of Kwajalein Atoll.”
The U.S. also agreed to continue paying the $1.9 million per year called for in the existing agreement. That payment will be indexed to inflation beginning in 2004. A joint U.S.-RMI labor relations board will also be established, and an oversight group will be formed to monitor environmental issues at Kwajalein.
The completion of the missile range agreement clears the way for the final stages of the larger “Compact II” negotiations between the Marshall Islands government and the United States.
The Bush administration has been keen to hold on to the missile-testing facility, officially known as the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, or RTS. The administration’s plan to proceed with some form of missile defense shield, a modified version of the Reagan era’s so-called Star Wars program, makes the Kwajalein site even more valuable.
The more than 100 islands of the Kwajalein Atoll form the world’s largest lagoon, and an ideal target for missiles launched from the U.S. west coast, Alaska, Kauai in Hawaii or Wake Island.
