Marshalls Pushes U.S. On Ambassador Nomination
Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony deBrum asked top US State Department officials to formally address the Marshall Islands’ nomination of Ben Graham as its Ambassador to Washington — and appointment that, nearly four months after it was made, remains up in the air.
“Until we receive a formal written rejection of Ben, the issue is still alive,” deBrum told the Marshall Islands Journal in a report published yesterday.
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He said that he has been receiving responses from various officials in the U.S. government that are not consistent.
The Nitijela’s (parliament’s) action in approving Graham’s appointment earlier this year “was based on two assurances from the U.S. that this was okay to do,” he said.
After the nomination was officially put forward to the U.S. by the Marshall Islands in mid-April, U.S. officials indicated verbally that Graham’s dual — U.S. and Marshall Islands — citizenship was an issue.
“The U.S. needs to respond in writing to us,” deBrum said.
The challenge for the RMI is that if the US government sticks to its rejection of Graham based on his U.S. citizenship, “it might mean we will not have anyone at the ambassador level in Washington until the end of 2008 or early 2009,” deBrum said, adding that obviously it would be easier to address important issues with the U.S. if Graham’s nomination proceeded.
DeBrum said that he’s aware that exceptions have been made to allow U.S. citizens as ambassadors to the US. DeBrum said his country has a very limited pool of people to choose from for such a key position. He also noted that the Marshalls is a freely associated state, at least one Cabinet member has U.S. citizenship, and country’s High Court and Supreme Court judges are Americans. If there is “an opportunity to waive the rules, Ben’s nomination is it,” deBrum said, adding that nobody in either government questions Graham’s qualifications for the assignment.
“This is extremely distressing to us (because Marshall Islands officials talked to U.S. officials prior to the Nitijela approving Graham’s nomination),” deBrum said. “We don’t want people to think we didn’t do our homework.”
DeBrum said that he raised the issue with some of Secretary of State Rice’s staff during his visit to Samoa, and is waiting for an official reply.
