Marshall Islands President Dr. Hilda C. Heine has made a state visit to Australia, the first by a Marshallese leader in more than three decades.
In a statement this week, President Heine welcomed closer ties to Australia, and ‘recognised the soon‑to‑be‑opened Australian Embassy in Majuro as a major milestone in the bilateral relationship.’
For decades, Australia has played a limited role in the three US Freely Associated States in Micronesia: the Republic of Palau, Federated States of Micronesia and Republic of Marshall Islands. But it is becoming harder to ignore the strategic importance of the northern Pacific, as successive US administrations increase military build-up in Hawai’i and Guam, and expend new infrastructure across Micronesia, including airstrips on Yap, Tinian, and Peleliu that will allow the dispersal of US forces from Guam in times of conflict.
The islands are also vital for US warfighting strategy in the Asia-Pacific region, hosting the US Kwajalein Atoll missile testing range. The US base is used to test new anti-missile defence systems, and serves as the splashdown point for intercontinental ballistic missiles test-fired from Vandenburg Space Force Base in California.
{Together with Tuvalu and Palau, RMI is one of only three Forum member countries that has diplomatic ties to Taiwan. Both Washington and Canberra are eager to bolster the remaining Taiwan-aligned Pacific states against Chinese influence (since 2019, the People’s Republic of China has replaced Taiwan as diplomatic partner of choice in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Nauru).
https://islandsbusiness.com/news-break/looking-south-marshall-islands-president-visits-australia/