Revelations Kiribati wants to close down one of the world’s biggest marine reserves and lend out an atoll to China suggests President Taneti Maamau might have lost his marbles.
Tarawa Government cabinet papers showing they want to let China’s fishing fleet into the Phoenix Islands Protected Area as well as have some kind of operation on Kanton Island, using old American facilities there.
Here are some basic pieces of geography Maamau may have overlooked.
Kanton is 3,072 km from Pearl Harbour, 2,600 km from Kwajalein, 5,100 km from Guam and just 1,200 km from Pago Pago to the south.
Three of them are key strategic bases in US global politics.
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