WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2023) The United States is very close to reaching a new funding agreement with the Marshall Islands that can be approved by Congress before the end of the current fiscal year on September 30, Presidential Envoy Joseph Yun said on Thursday.
"We are very close to an agreement with the Republic of the Marshall Islands," Yun told a meeting at the Heritage Foundation. "I am hopeful."
The Biden administration was currently in negotiations with the Marshall Islands, Palau, and Micronesia for a renewed $7.1 billion package of US financial support to the three island nations over the next 20 years, of which $6.5 billion would go to social and economic development, Yun explained.
"The current funding arrangement ends at the end of September ...(and) we do want the funding not to stop. It is very important that we get this done within this fiscal year," he said.
The funding for economic aid, education, health care, infrastructure, and other issues would work out to about $100 million per year, Yun said.
