The Pacific island nations of Palau, Marshall Islands, and Micronesia, known as the Freely Associated States (FAS), have long granted the United States extensive defense and security access, including the right to base at and deny entry to the FAS by someone else’s military.
Citizens in the three strategically-situated FAS nations can also serve in the U.S. military.
Two of the three, Palau and Marshall Islands, recognize Taiwan’s independence and do not have Chinese embassies on their soil. This “gives them another layer of protection from Chinese influence operations, while standing for a free and open Indo-Pacific in one of the most politically courageously ways possible,” Cleo Paskal wrote in a June 25 analysis for The Sunday Guardian.
Combined, the FAS nations’ maritime exclusive economic zones cover an area of the Pacific comparable in size to the continental United States.
“The relationship with the FAS is what allows the U.S. military largely unimpeded deployment from Hawaii to Guam (and through Guam and the Marianas to treaty ally Japan),” Paskal noted.