Self-Government for Mid-Pacific Islands Announcement of an Agreement Between the United States, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Representatives of the United States, the Marshall Islands Government, and the Federated States of Micronesia today initialed a Compact of Free Association, a basic document which will, when finally approved, authorize self-government for the 120,000 inhabitants of hundreds of islands ranged across 3,000 miles of the mid-Pacific and will also establish the terms of a unique, continuing, close relationship with the United States. The initialing also advances President Carter's goal, announced in 1977, of terminating in 1981 the United Nations Trusteeship Agreement under which the United States has administered the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands since 1947. The islands, formerly ruled by Spain and Germany, became a Japanese League of Nations mandate as a result of World War I and were captured by United States military forces during World War II.

Initialing for the United States was Ambassador Peter R. Rosenblatt, who has served since 1977 as President Carter's Personal Representative for Micronesian Status Negotiations. He was joined by Anton A. deBrun, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Marshall Islands, and Andon L. Amaraich, Secretary of External Affairs of the Federated States of Micronesia and Chairman of its Commission on Future Political Status and Transition.

Today's initialing represents the virtual completion of a negotiating process that began in 1969. The Compact provides that the United States will retain plenary authority in defense and security matters and that three Micronesian entities—the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau—will acquire full internal self-government and authority over all aspects of their foreign relations other than those which the United States determines to be defense- and security-related. The Compact also sets forth the financial and other types of assistance which the United States will provide over a 15-year period and covers the many other realms—including environmental regulations, trade, finance, and taxation-in which the United States and Micronesia will remain linked. The Compact's aid and defense provisions continue for 15 years and thereafter, as may be mutually agreed. It also provides each of the Micronesian entities the option of unilateral termination should any of them later decide to seek full independence or any other political status. However, such unilateral termination would be subject to continuation of U.S. defense rights and economic assistance for their full terms.

During several months following today's initialing ceremony, negotiators for all of the governments involved will conclude their work on a dozen or more detailed subsidiary agreements covering such subjects as telecommunications, extradition, and military land-use and operating rights. Once these subsidiary agreements have been completed, the Compact of Free Association will be formally signed. At that point the Compact will be presented to the voters of Micronesia for approval by plebiscite and submitted to the United States Congress as a joint resolution for enactment into law. If the Compact is approved, the United States will present the completed arrangements to the United Nations and seek termination of the Trusteeship Agreement. The United States strategic trusteeship in Micronesia is the last of the 11 U.N. trusteeships established after World War II.

Palau, the fourth party to the current negotiations, was unable to send a delegation to Washington this week, because the voters of this small island group in the Western Carolines go to the polls on November 4 to elect their first national government. That government will take office on January 1, 1981, whereas elected governments took office in the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia in May 1979. In a letter dated October 25, however, the Palauan negotiators informed Ambassador Rosenblatt that they would meet with him in Washington on November 6 and 7 with a view to concluding negotiations and initiating the Compact and several closely related agreements.

Marshallese President Amata Kabua had initialed an earlier version of the Compact with Ambassador Rosenblatt at Kona, Hawaii, on January 14, 1980, but the document initialed today contains numerous changes from the January version, several of which were introduced by the Marshallese themselves.

Another district of the Trust Territory, the Northern Mariana Islands, in 1975 approved an agreement establishing an even closer relationship with the United States through commonwealth status. Residents of the Northern Marianas have since elected their own Governor and legislature, but the Commonwealth will come into full legal existence only upon termination of the Trusteeship Agreement.

There is no exact precedent in international law or U.S. constitutional practice for the free association status which the three Micronesian entities have chosen. The autonomy which the Micronesian states will exercise exceeds that of U.S. territories, while U.S. defense authority in the freely associated states is comprehensive and therefore of a different nature from the treaty relationships with even America's closest allies.