Compact of Free Association
The Compacts of Free Association (COFA) are international agreements establishing and governing the relationships of free association between the United States and the three Pacific Island sovereign states of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and the Republic of Palau. As a result, these countries are sometimes known as the Freely Associated States (FASs). All three agreements next expire in 2043.
Representatives of the Compact states meeting in Kolonia, Micronesia, in August 2019. Left to right: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Micronesian President David Panuelo, Marshallese President Hilda Heine, and Palauan Vice President Raynold Oilouch
Federated States of Micronesia
The Federated States of Micronesia, or simply Micronesia, is an island country in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania. The federation consists of four states—from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae—that are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise around 607 islands that cover a longitudinal distance of almost 2,700 km (1,700 mi) just north of the equator. They lie northeast of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, south of Guam and the Marianas, west of Nauru and the Marshall Islands, east of Palau and the Philippines, about 2,900 km (1,800 mi) north of eastern Australia, 3,400 km (2,100 mi) southeast of Japan, and some 4,000 km (2,485 mi) southwest of the main islands of the Hawaiian Islands.
Manila Galleon in the Marianas and Carolinas, c. 1590 Boxer Codex
Sea Hawk helicopter (US Navy) flies over the waters of Chuuk, Micronesia.
The FSS Tosiwo Nakayama, a Guardian-class patrol boat of the Federated States of Micronesia
A view of Kolonia Town from Sokehs Ridge in Pohnpei