On Friday 23 September, the Republic of the Marshall Islands halted negotiations with the United States to renew their Compact of Free Association treaty over Washington's lack of commitment to address its nuclear weapons test legacy. The United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958, forcing people to relocate and exposing them, and their land, to lasting health, environmental, and economic issues that still affect them more than 70 years later. The Marshall Islands are also home to a nuclear waste dump that was sealed under a cement dome in 1977 and built on Runit Island when the state was still a US Trust Territory. However, due to climate change and rising sea levels, the dome, originally a temporary solution to store atomic waste, is deteriorating and seawater is interacting with the nuclear waste, and therefore contaminating the environment.

Talks regarding the two nation’s Compact Agreement resumed in June 2022, three years after the last in-person meeting in August 2019. While leaders from both states met virtually in 2020 and 2021, negotiations remained at a standstill. The halt in negotiations is likely to be perceived as a blow to President Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy - a major policy ploy aimed at countering China’s growing influence in the Pacific. The cancellation of the negotiations came two days after the Marshall Islands’ President David Kabua called on the United States to better address its legacy of nuclear testing and climate change during the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and a week before the White House hosts the first US-Pacific Island Country Summit on 28-29 September. 

Along with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands is freely associated with the United States. As a result of this free association, the three Micronesian states and Washington have enjoyed a special relationship since 1986. Indeed, the Compacts mean, among other things, that the United States “has full authority and responsibility for security and defence matters”, gaining control of an area of the Pacific Ocean that stretches all the way from Hawai’i to the Philippines. Freely Associated States are independent and theoretically have the right to determine their own foreign affairs. Their citizens are also allowed to live, and legally work, in the United States without a visa and have access to its social and health services, meanwhile, these Pacific Island states have access to direct economic assistance from Washington. The renewal of the Compact is therefore of great importance to the Marshall Islands and the United States, as the current 20-year funding package of the Compact is set to expire on 30 September 2023. 

As the United States seeks to upgrade its presence in Oceania, in part through increased investments in health, climate, security, and development work, alongside the maintenance of its diplomatic reach in the region, it will have to demonstrate a better understanding of the challenges facing the Micronesian states and the wider Pacific if it wants to be considered an essential partner. Remaining silent on the issue of nuclear weapons testing does not work in Washington’s favour, and this action could do more harm than it realises to its reputation in the Pacific, as well as to its Indo-Pacific Strategy.

The topic of nuclear testing is not taken lightly in Oceania, as demonstrated by the ratification of the 1986 Rarotonga Treaty, which makes the South Pacific a nuclear-free zone and prohibits nuclear explosive devices in the region, the Marshall Islands’ decision to fill a lawsuit in 2014 in the International Court of Justice and the US Federal Court of Justice in San Francisco against the 9 nuclear-armed states for not fulfilling their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Pacific leaders’ concerns regarding Japan’s decision to dump over a million tonnes of Fukushima nuclear wastewater, and the unease felt by Pacific leaders following the announcement of the AUKUS deal.

Furthermore, the Pacific Island Forum’s members support the Republic of the Marshall Islands in its struggle to reach a fair nuclear settlement, thus adding weight to its grievances. The topic is likely to be a major area of discussion during the Summit; a major challenge for US diplomatic officers. Washington will have to admit its faults, otherwise, Pacific Island countries will continue to perceive the United States as an unreliable partner, only concerned by the threat Beijing might pose to its interests in the region. Such a reality would constitute a major policy failure, as this is exactly what the US is seeking to avoid.