SYDNEY: The president of the tiny Pacific Islands nation of Palau, one of many few nations to flee US tariffs, mentioned he stays “constructive” the Trump Administration will hold a robust concentrate on the area and never completely retreat.
Palau, with a inhabitants of 17,000, has a compact of free affiliation with the US offering financial help in return for permitting the US navy entry to its territory. It obtained USAID funding for submarine cables and local weather change programmes, earlier than most US Company for Worldwide Improvement workers globally have been placed on depart.
“I hope that it’s a retreat, reassess, then come again stronger,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr mentioned in Sydney on Thursday of the USAID cuts.
Citing the Reagan Administration slogan of “peace by way of energy” that he mentioned “Trump likes too”, Whipps mentioned in an deal with on the Lowy Institute suppose tank that Palau’s precedence was to make sure it was correctly defended.
In his first presidency, Trump introduced three Pacific Islands leaders to the White Home to interact on safety points, he mentioned.
“What Palau sees as essential is a robust United States that is capable of proceed to be robust, is sweet for Palau and good for the planet,” Whipps mentioned.
“It has been a bumpy highway, slicing USAID and different actions, however I prefer to suppose constructive,” he added.
