“Negotiation failures are leading U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) to look for alternative locations for the $2 billion Department of Defense investment in infrastructure in Yap, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).”
“On June 29, 2026, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the PACOM commander, wrote to President Wesley Simina of FSM that the country’s demand for a ‘$1.3 billion compensation package is unreasonable, unanchored to demonstrable costs, and divergent from the spirit of our partnership under the Compact of Free Association’. As a result, ‘U.S. PACOM intends to move forward by assessing alternative locations across the region to meet the needs of Pacific defense’.”
“Yap state, made up over a hundred islands, is a core part of the Second Island Chain…”
“In the decades after [WWII], Yap joined with neighboring island groups to form the independent country of Federated States of Micronesia. FSM then signed a Compact of Free Association (COFA) with the United States that ties the two countries together in profound ways, including the citizens of FSM being allowed to live and work freely in the U.S.”
“This is at least the second time recently there have been major problems in U.S. defense negotiations with a COFA country. One reason that Washington pursued Yap airport improvements in the first place was that Department of Defense negotiations for increased access in Angaur, in the neighboring Second Island Chain country of Palau, fell apart.”