Balanced News: Palau, United States close to renewing security, economic compact

The United States and Palau, an island nation located in the militarily strategic western Pacific, are close to formally renewing their security and economic relationship after agreeing a doubling in U.S. assistance. Palau along with the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia are independent states that, under agreements known as compacts of free association, have ceded security to Washington in exchange for economic assistance and the right for their citizens to live and work in the United States. In Palau’s case, U.S. security arrangements have previously been agreed until 2044 and it is economic assistance that is being negotiated.