{"id":230102,"date":"2016-06-16T06:06:02","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T20:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=230102"},"modified":"2016-06-16T06:06:02","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T20:06:02","slug":"902-military-talks-not-matter-give-take","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/902-military-talks-not-matter-give-take\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018902 military talks not matter of give-and-take\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gov.<\/a>
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres talks to reporters during a briefing Tuesday about last week\u2019s 902 talks in Washington, D.C. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said Tuesday that the \u201cSection 902\u201d talks with federal officials including those from the Department of Defense are not a matter of give-and-take and said that for any new Defense projects to move forward in the CNMI, existing \u201cpromises and contracts\u201d must be fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Torres was pointing to the CNMI Covenant, which established a relationship with the United States, and the technical agreement effected at the same time that spelled out the U.S. use of land leased to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an existing contract. That needs to be fulfilled, before you start proposing anything else. That\u2019s what we want. Nothing more, nothing else,\u201d Torres told reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The Torres administration believes the proposed live-fire and bombing range use of public lands leased on Tinian would have to be \u201creworked\u201d to become compatible with the \u201cpurposes for which the land was leased,\u201d as spelled out in the CNMI Covenant and the technical agreement with the U.S. on the use of land leased to them.<\/p>\n

Noting these binding documents, Torres referred to \u201ceconomic promises\u201d and the two-thirds of land leased to the military on Tinian to build an airbase, build schools, hospitals, \u201ceven as much as a movie theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he though the live-fire project\u2014which also entails bombing Pagan\u2014was incompatible or in conflict with these agreements and if he made this clear in meetings with officials in Washington, D.C., Torres said, \u201cFor sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we agreed on is specifically stated\u2026 We emphasized this is one of the reasons why we joined the U.S. family. We have an agreement and we want that agreement fulfilled before we move to any other proposed projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pagan, for one, was not required to be leased to the United States and Torres asserts that the CNMI has no real interest in leasing or selling portions of the island for military training purposes.<\/p>\n

Right now, Torres said there are in the final stages of \u201cprogrammatic agreement\u201d for the U.S. Air Force\u2019s divert airfield project, which Torres has stressed to be on Tinian.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur request and our concerns have been addressed and so we are getting to where we believe it will protect the people of the CNMI and not just today but 40 years from now,\u201d said Torres.<\/p>\n

Torres officials believe that when the CNMI elected to become part of the American family of states, it agreed to lease property on Saipan, Farallon de Medinilla, and Tinian for specific purposes.<\/p>\n

The U.S., for one, agreed that\u2014until it chose to build an airbase on Tinian\u2014public lands there would be leased back to the CNMI for ranching and agricultural purposes\u2014and that there would only be basic military operations and maneuvers training such as Cope North and Forager Fury.<\/p>\n

In other words, the CNMI agreed to allow live fire and bombing activities on Farallon de Medinilla\u2014not Tinian.<\/p>\n

And whether the United States can, officials say, change the use of the property on Tinian for live-fire and bombing ranges is a separate legal issue, which should be considered in the historical context under which the CNMI agreed to lease this property of the United States.<\/p>\n

On Farallon de Medinilla, or FDM, Torres said he stressed environmental issues and the proximity of fishing with the current bombing on the island.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time we are given back the property in 2083, it will not be the same as what we gave them, so we did echo that concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Not negotiations\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Torres was also asked Tuesday about the \u201cquid pro quo\u201d or negotiating points in the 902 discussions.<\/p>\n

Some local leaders claim and even former Cabinet members have suggested that other 902 topic\u2014the CNMI\u2019s expiring contract worker program\u2014and the extension thereof\u2014to stave economic collapse\u2014would require a trade-off for the military use of Pagan, for example.<\/p>\n

However, Torres, turning notably more and addressing reporters by name said, \u201cJill, Dennis, Cherrie, 902 is not about negotiating. We did not walk in there to negotiate because we are not there to give something to receive something. 902 talks are avenue for us to walk in there\u201d and talk about agreements \u201cthat made us a part of United States. We are not\u201d going to \u201csay that in 20 or 40 years we are going to \u2018give you a little bit and give me little bit.\u2019 We are here to tell the United States what we are facing and the issues that we have. We are not asking for bailouts. We are asking them to look at our situation and perhaps give them a special approach because we do have a special relationship. But no negotiation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said Tuesday that the \u201cSection 902\u201d talks with federal officials including…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":230143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[26,1733,200,57],"class_list":["post-230102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-cnmi","tag-cope-north","tag-military","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}