US expert defends military relocation to Guam

Samisoni Pareti
The relocation of the United States military base in Okinawa in Japan to Guam in the Northern Pacific should be a deterrent. And fears expressed by some that the move could bring world conflict closer to the region are not well grounded, says retired American Ambassador Charles Salmon.

Now teaching foreign relations at the Honolulu-based Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies, the retired diplomat argued that a closer US military presence should be a more preferred alternative for people in the Pacific.

“We always have significant military facilities in Guam, we have one of our largest airbases, Anderson Air Force, based there, we have a naval presence in Guam.

“So what we are doing with the agreement and cooperation of the Japanese Government is taking pressure off the people of Okinawa who feel the American presence there had become more onerous.

“So it’s re-positioning our forces and it’s going to take some time.

“But I don’t think you need to be overly concerned about being in the wrong neighbourhood.

“The whole purpose of these forces is really preventative, we have a presence here because we want to prevent miscalculation, prevent people from thinking that an absence of our presence would enable them to do things that we think would be inimical to our interests and also to the interests of our friends and allies in this part of the world.

“So I wouldn’t be overly apprehensive and I really want to emphasise that while we may be scaling down a bit in both Japan and Korea, the forces that we have left there will be in my view more capable because of enhanced technology, they’ll be more agile, they’ll be more deployable.”

Salmon was on a lecture tour in the South Pacific recently, addressing the issue of US foreign policy towards the Pacific.

His lecture at the University of the South Pacific was attended by students, academics, diplomats and military personnel.

In an interview with ISLANDS BUSINESS after his lecture, Salmon reiterated that the presence of the US military in the region could also serve other useful purposes as shown in the recovery work done in Aceh by the USS Abraham Lincoln battle group during the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004.

The US foreign policy advisor didn’t suggest it, but a bigger military base in Guam may also address the common complaint now known as ADS, Attention Deficient Syndrome.

He said such grumbles are heard more often in the southern part of the Pacific.

But the former diplomat who once served as the American ambassador in Laos rejects claims  the US is least interested in the region and that it relies on Australia to be its “surrogate” or “deputy sheriff.”

“I think that’s quite incorrect. I know that you sometimes hear that. I think it does my country a disservice and other countries a disservice when you label them, ‘oh they are the American surrogate.’

“They are particularly unfortunate characterisation which I think doesn’t make any sense at all, you know the ‘deputy sheriff’ business.

“I just don’t buy that at all. My country has embassies in various countries of the South Pacific, obviously including here in Fiji, and we look to our embassies to pursue our interests and our policies.

“I have to say that we don’t contract out to others what is the responsibility of the US Government and I think it does my country a disservice to suggest that that’s the case, and it does other countries that are supposed to be the ‘surrogate’ an equal disservice to suggest that.

“I know it’s attractive, it’s attention-getting but it’s essentially a distortion and I think it’s also quite frankly dishonest.”

Salmon wouldn’t buy the view that since the end of the Cold War, Washington DC has engaged in a ‘hands-off’ policy with countries of the Pacific.

He pointed out that the US is a significant contributor to international financial agencies doing business in the islands such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.

Washington still maintains its multilateral fisheries agreement with the Pacific Islands Forum Countries, its Fiji embassy is expanding and more and more Pacific islanders are attending the Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii.

“Every country feels the US is not giving it as much attention as it should get, and that’s just a fact of life, it’s not going to change.

“We get that from the British, the French, the Chinese, they say ‘why aren’t you doing more, you do this, you do that.’

“The point is we have a lot of interests. But I think we are very much conscious of what goes on down here, we value the kind of voting support we get in the United Nations and as I’ve tried to indicate too, we value the support that Fiji has given in Iraq, and generally for important peacekeeping operations.”

On the question of guest workers that islands of the Pacific are trying to negotiate with Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, Salmon believes Washington has its own issues with alien workers especially across its southern borders and may not have the time to consider such a scheme with the islands.

He agrees, however, that remittances are important. But the diplomat offered the view that the way to go for smaller islands of the region would be employment generation at home.

“I think the main effort should be employment generation opportunities here in Fiji rather than always seeking to export your workers abroad.

“I also think and this is a personal view I’ve long maintained that quite often the social costs for a country whose workers are abroad for long periods of time are more significant than we sometimes understand.

“I mean the cost in terms of families being without a father or mother for a long period of time, the impact on the children, these are things

“I think have to be considered and that’s why I think on balance, people want to stay home, they want to be with their families.”

Ambassador Salmon said he is aware that Fijians are joining other migrant workers in war-torn Iraq and neighbouring Kuwait.

He is also aware that in pursuing the very policy of job creation at home, some islands in the Pacific fell victims of Washington’s decision to abolish its garment import quota system in 2005.

He offered that garment producers were given a ten-year notice about the abolishment and that it is not the end of the road for garment exporting countries like Fiji.

Finding its niche and precise marketing may be the way to go, Salmon says.

“Obviously the competition now from places like China and Bangladesh could be quite frankly devastating for smaller countries because the wage differential is such that they could just produce something in a cheaper way.

“But my understanding is that Fiji has a very good reputation for what it does, for the kind of textiles or garments that it manufactures and

I can remember shopping myself and seeing many American garments with ‘Made in Fiji’ labels on them.

“But I think in a globalised world, you have to look for niches and I gathered given the high quality of your production that there are niche markets where you can be competitive.

“Where you have a relatively small amount of garment at high quality, the requirement is time sensitive and you have to have them ready quickly.

“Places like India, Bangladesh or China really are uninterested in that kind of niche, may be even too high-ended for them.

“Also I think what you have going for you is I say this in terms of the marketing component of what you do is the fact that this is a democracy, your labour conditions are good.

“I mean this country even when it was successful in garment production, it was certainly never known as a sweat shop country.

“You have people being paid decent wages and so forth, that can be a very significant marketing tool.

“I think you play your strengths, you get the right niche and you market aggressively about why your materials make sense for people to buy.

“And that’s the whole business of free enterprise, which is also entrepreneurship which I think is very important.”