Some CNMI lawmakers expressed support yesterday to a Guam legislative resolution asking U.S. President Barack Obama and Congress to permanently place a missile defense system in Guam to protect U.S. island territories, neighboring Micronesian islands, and the Asia-Pacific region.
\n\u201cI respect Guam for adopting the resolution. I agree that a permanent missile defense system should be placed there since Guam has existing military bases and it only makes sense,\u201d CNMI Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
Torres said the Senate will discuss this resolution during their session on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Guam Sen. Tina Rose Muna Barnes transmitted yesterday to the CNMI Legislature a copy of Resolution 186-32, adopted by the Guam Legislature on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
Resolution 186-32 is \u201crespectfully requesting President Barack Obama, Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and the United States Congress to permanently station a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and a Patriot Missile Defense System [in] Guam for the protection of the people of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the neighboring islands throughout Micronesia, and the Asia-Pacific region.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNMI Rep. Trenton Conner (Ind-Tinian), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign and Federal Relations, said this \u201cshould have been done a long time\u201d ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about time. The safety and well-being of our people should have been their utmost priority,\u201d Conner said.<\/p>\n
THAAD system is the world\u2019s newest land-based strategic missile defense system with the capability to intercept and destroy long-range ballistic missiles inside or outside the atmosphere during its final or terminal phase of flight.<\/p>\n
On April 4, 2013, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel signed an order to deploy a THAAD system to Guam in response to North Korea\u2019s threats of launching a nuclear, ballistic missile attack targeting Guam.<\/p>\n
Guam senators said a 2012 assessment report states that a THAAD system would be best suited to protect military bases in Guam and Japan from a North Korean attack.<\/p>\n
A Patriot Missile Defense System, meanwhile, is a mobile, ground-based interceptor with sites throughout the globe that targets UAV, cruise missiles, and short-range ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n
Guam senators believe that the island\u2019s strategic location contributes to the U.S. national defense posture in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Guam is home to some 160,000 U.S. citizens and major military base installations of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n
Throughout the year, Guam hosts a number of joint training operations and exercises for the U.S. Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marines, and the Navy, indicative of Guam being one of the nation\u2019s most strategic forward-operating bases in the Asia-Pacific region.<\/p>\n
Guam senators believe that the permanent installation of a missile defense system in Guam \u201cwould effectively serve to deter aggression and sustain peace in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Guam Legislature also sent a copy of Resolution 279-32 to the CNMI House and Senate.<\/p>\n
The second resolution, adopted by the Guam Legislature also on Feb. 1, promotes affordable and alternative regional transportation between Guam and the CNMI by means of a ferry service or similar vessels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some CNMI lawmakers expressed support yesterday to a Guam legislative resolution asking U.S. President Barack…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[418,51,200,67],"class_list":["post-30178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-air-force","tag-guam","tag-military","tag-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30178","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30178\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}