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President Urusemal meets with Pacific Commander

HONOLULU, Hawaii (DFA/FSM Information Service): August 7, 2003 - On July 31 2003, President Joseph J. Urusemal met with Admiral Thomas Boulton Fargo, Commander of the Honolulu based U.S./Pacific Command.

During the meeting at Camp H.M. Smith, President Urusemal restated to the Admiral the Federated States of Micronesia's commitment and genuine support of the war on terrorism.

The President also expressed the need for continued assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the FSM. The Agency has been the primary assistance conduit for disaster mitigation in the FSM, which also bears witness to the special relationship between the FSM and the U.S.

Admiral Fargo paralleled the sentiment by expressing the need for maintenance of good relations between the FSM and the U.S. The Admiral went on to share the U.S.'s commitment to the program that provides technical and humanitarian assistance to the FSM or the Humanitarian Assistance for FSM (HAFSM).

The Admiral further expressed his support for the amended Compact currently pending before the U.S. Congress for consideration.

Admiral Fargo assumed his duties as the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command based at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii, on May 2 2002. He is the senior U.S. military commander in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas and leads the largest of the unified commands and directs Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force operations. His areas of responsibility encompasse across more than 50% of the earth's surface, approximately 105 million square miles: from the west coast of the United States mainland to the east coast of Africa, from the Arctic to Antarctic, including the state of Hawaii and forces in Alaska.