PALAU — A new report by a Guam-based security think tank has amplified domestic unease over the rapid expansion of US military infrastructure in Palau, days after Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. made a historic first state visit to New Zealand in April — a move analysts say reflects Palau’s efforts to broaden diplomatic ties as concerns mount at home.
The Pacific Centre for Island Security’s Micronesia Security Outlook 2025 warns that measures meant to protect Palau’s environment and sovereignty have been weakened by an accelerated military build-up that has often left local communities out of the loop. Jodean Remengesau, who wrote the Palau chapter and is director of the Bureau of Agriculture in Palau’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment, says the United States has “missed and fell short of fulfilling its duties and responsibilities under the compact” between the two countries.
Remengesau points to a high-profile example in Angaur state, where US forces cleared 271,807 square metres of land for the first site of a tactical mobile over-the-horizon radar system without obtaining required environmental earthmoving permits or holding community consultations under Palauan law. The report says debris from the clearing — piles of shredded trees — was later dumped on residents’ yards and created conditions likely to foster invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle infestations, a direct environmental harm the compact’s safeguards were designed to prevent.
Angaur Governor Steven Salii filed suit in 2023 against Palau’s central government, the Palau Environmental Quality Protection Board, the US government and its military contractors, alleging violations of Palauan environmental laws and compact obligations arising from the unauthorised clearing. The case remains a focal point for critics who argue that promised guardrails have not restrained operational decisions on the ground.
The report acknowledges the geopolitical drivers behind the build-up: renewed US strategic focus in the western Pacific amid rising US–China competition. Under the renegotiated Compact of Free Association, the United States pledged an US$890 million aid package to Palau over 20 years, which began on October 1, 2023. The compact also secures US defence responsibilities for Palau and, because a significant share of Palau’s national budget is funded by compact assistance and foreign aid, analysts expect continued expansion of US facilities.
One of the military projects at the centre of controversy is a US$118 million radar system that the US military says will be operational this year. The Pacific Centre for Island Security also highlights a transparency issue: an installation that had been presented publicly as a single shoreline radar tower for mutual use by Palau and the US later emerged to involve two separate installations — a discrepancy that has fuelled suspicions about how projects are represented to Palauan authorities and communities.
The report and Angaur’s court action come at a sensitive moment for Palau’s international posture. President Whipps’ state visit to New Zealand is being read as part of an effort to diversify external partners and assert Palau’s voice in regional diplomacy even as internal debates over environmental protection, sovereignty and the trade-offs of security partnerships intensify. Local dissatisfaction, the think-tank argues, risks eroding public trust in both Palauan institutions and foreign partners unless transparency, environmental compliance and meaningful consultation are restored.
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