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Palau, Marshall Islands and the FSM Signs an Agreement Establishing the Micronesian Regional Transnational Crime Unit

April 26, 2018 in Local News / Beches el Chais

For Immediate Release
Serial No. PR-18-116
April 26, 2018
Office of the President

Republic of Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia Signs an Agreement Establishing the Micronesian Regional Transnational Crime Unit

On April 26th, President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr., President Hilda Heine of the Republic of Marshall Islands and President Peter Christian of the Federated States of Micronesia signed an agreement establishing the Micronesian Regional Transnational Crime Unit at the sideline of the 23rd Micronesian Islands Forum held at the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI).

In August 2017 during the 17th Micronesian Presidents’ Summit in Pohnpei, FSM, the Presidents through the Palikir Communiqué acknowledged the importance of strengthening and regionalizing the Micronesian Regional Transnational Crime Unit where they agreed to designate their respective Attorney Generals to develop, create and establish a binding framework that constitutes the Unit.

Establishing a stronger regional collaborative effort, the Unit will undertake mutual assistance in the respective national jurisdictions of Palau, RMI and FSM on areas including the prevention, investigation and prosecution of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, money laundering, terrorism, exchange of information related to criminal investigation, trafficking in person and human smuggling, drug trafficking and drug smuggling, cybercrime  detection and prevention, and sharing information concerning national and regional criminal activity trends.

The Unit will hold annual meetings with the outcome of their meetings to be reported to the Micronesian Presidents’ Summit.

The 19th Micronesian Presidents’ Summit will be hosted by Palau in 2019.

Click HERE to download this press release in PDF. Click HERE to download a copy of the Agreement Establishing the Micronesian Regional Transnational Crime Unit.