A ranking military official\u2014U.S. Army Gen. Leon J. Laporte\u2014came to the Northern Marianas Saturday, conducting an aerial view of Tinian and visiting prepositioned military ships in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n
Laporte, a four-star general, met with Gov. Juan N. Babauta Saturday and told the Commonwealth\u2019s chief executive of the strategic role the islands have for the nation. Laporte is the commander of the United Nations\u2019 Command and U.S. Forces headquartered in Seoul, South Korea.<\/p>\n
Babauta said he had a luncheon meeting with Laporte after the general flew over Tinian via helicopter and visited prepositioned ships. According to the governor, there are currently five military ships docked in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe [Laporte] expressed appreciation for the CNMI having these ships here,\u201d Babauta said. \u201cWe continue to play an important, strategic role.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tinian, the military leases over 7,628 acres of public land, which allows it to control approximately 30 percent of the island\u2019s landmass. The Babauta administration has maintained its support for increased military presence in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Laporte\u2019s visit came about days after the highest ranking Naval official in the entire Pacific, U.S. Pacific Command commander Adm. Thomas B. Fargo, came to the CNMI and stressed the islands\u2019 strategic role for the U.S., amid rising economies and military strength in some Asian countries.<\/p>\n
Fargo confirmed U.S. plans to increase military presence in the Marianas region. There has been no confirmation from the military, though, if it would eventually put up a military base in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
According to CNMI press secretary Pete Callaghan, Fargo and Naval Forces Marianas commander Rear Adm. Arthur Johnson toured the islands to familiarize themselves of the islands\u2019 geography, infrastructure, and potential for future military plans. The Navy officials toured port facilities on Saipan, as well as Tinian and FDM via helicopter.<\/p>\n
The military may intensify bombing exercises on FDM as military planes on Guam increase. The Navy officials confirmed short-term military plans in the CNMI, including increased use of prepositioned ships and heightened training of military personnel, according to Callaghan.<\/p>\n
Callaghan earlier quoted Fargo as saying that Guam and the CNMI would play \u201can increasingly more strategic\u201d role for the U.S. \u201cas the \u2018center of gravity\u2019 for the U.S. shifts both economically and militarily towards Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cChina and India have huge populations, and as they continue to develop economically, they will have a more significant impact on the U.S. economy,\u201d Fargo reportedly said.<\/p>\n
Reports have it that various movements in military logistics and construction activities are currently on going, as the U.S. Department of Defense plans on transforming the Marianas into a military hub on the edge of Asia.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a Korean investor\u2014Dong-In Entech Co. Ltd.\u2014is planning to put up on the islands a factory that would manufacture military products for the U.S. Defense Department, particularly CamelBak products, a leading name in backpacks and hydration systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A ranking military official\u2014U.S. Army Gen. Leon J. Laporte\u2014came to the Northern Marianas Saturday, conducting an aerial view of Tinian and visiting prepositioned military ships in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82837","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}