Media Releases

Top U.S. Pacific Military Commander Visits FSM

April 11, 2008

Admiral Timothy J. Keating, Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM), paid a special visit to Pohnpei on Tuesday, April 8. Admiral Keating, who is based at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii, was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Wandalee Keating, and other USPACOM officials. This significant milestone marked the first personal visit by a USPACOM commander to the Federated States of Micronesia. The FSM leadership warmly welcomed the U.S. delegation.

Accompanied by U.S. Ambassador Miriam K. Hughes, the Admiral met with FSM President Emanuel Mori and members of his Executive Cabinet in Palikir. He then joined the FSM head of state in the President’s Conference Room for a Joint Press Statement delivered before representatives of the FSM. Admiral Keating and his delegation also met with Speaker Isaac Figir and other members of the FSM Congress.

Mrs. Keating separately toured the Pohnpei State Hospital with FSM Secretary of Health and Social Services Vita Skilling and Pohnpei State First Lady Julinida Ehsa, where she met with administrators and toured the children’s wards, meeting patients and their families.

President Mori welcomed his visitors by saying, “I want to assure everyone who is out there that we have a very strong, unique, and friendly relationship.” Admiral Keating said, “It is this type of relationship, which woven together, forms a very, very tight fabric of peace and security all throughout this vast part of the world for which we are responsible.”

PACOM is a joint military combatant command with an area of responsibility covering no less than half of the earth's surface and traversing 16 time zones. It extends from the west coast of the continental United States to the east coast of Africa, from the Arctic Ocean to Antarctica.