The U.S. is expanding its military presence on tiny but strategically important Pacific islands as part of its strategy to block Chinese expansion and cultivate neglected relationships across a broad swath of the Pacific.
Much of the new focus centers on Micronesia, a group of islands with just over 100,000 inhabitants near the midpoint of the 5,000 miles of waters between Hawaii and the Philippines.
The U.S. military has held talks with the Federated States of Micronesia about opening new naval facilities and expanding an airport runway, according to Micronesian government officials and official minutes of a Dec 4, 2018, defense meeting between officials of both nations. The minutes were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
