Last week, the visiting US congress members toured the ongoing US military infrastructure improvement projects in the country.
A couple of the projects going at the moment include improvements to the Malakal port, Peleliu roads, and the Peleliu airfield, and the US congress members visited these projects.
The US naval construction personnel are currently working at the Malakal ports, making improvements. At Peleliu, Admiral Nicholson said they had started the road work after having just received the heavy equipment needed for work. As the road work continues, they will be looking at airfield improvement.
“They are the ones that allow us to get the funding to do these projects, so it is very apropos that they would come down and watch how well we are doing that,” explained US Rear Admiral Benjamin Nicholson, the Joint Region Marianas commander and INDOPACOM, who was on the island last week and joined the US congress delegation on the visits.
“There are some other things we are thinking about for the future, but these are the two main ones right now,” added Admiral Nicholson in an interview with media last week.
The work on the two US Aerial Domain Awareness (ADA) radar and radio towers has progressed. Site preparation for the one in Angaur has started while securing the Babeldaob site is reaching its final stage.
United States Congressional Delegation, led by Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Florida), also handled Veterans Affairs and met with members of the US Armed Forces veterans in Palau to discuss ways to improve their situation.
The next JCM meeting will be held here in Palau in early November, and Admiral Nicholson said that discussions would cover some of the planned improvements in the coming years.