Northern Marianan Islands' leader Arnold Palacios says he is under no illusion that this would come into fruition any time soon. Photo: RNZ Pacific
The governors of the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam have discussed about the possibility of eventually becoming the 51st state of the United States.
During a moment of levity before the recent Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA) in Washington, CNMI's leader Arnold Palacios and Guam's leader Lou Leon Guerrero talked briefly about the longtime proposal of both territories reunification with the US.
"We were joking about it because somebody had mentioned [perhaps by a think tank] and she brought the issue up.
"She said, 'what do you think about Hagatna being the capital?' I said, well, 'how about Capitol Hill on Saipan being the capital,'" he said during a quick social media interview yesterday with RNZ Pacific.
Palacios said he and Leon Guerrero were just getting ready to sit down for the IGIA plenary session when she brought up the issue of the Guam-CNMI reunification and eventually becoming the 51st state of the US.
However, he said he harbors no illusion that this would come into fruition any time soon, even as the Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump has set his sights in the US acquiring Greenland from Denmark.
This, after also suggesting that Canada could become America's 51st state-even referring to Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as "governor" of the "Great State of Canada"-and also wresting control of the Panama Canal from Panama.
"We were just joking about it. [But] I'm not sure [US] Congress has got an appetite for that. I don't know. I don't know where that came from. But you know, I mean, what do I think about it? That's something that to me, it's kind of far-fetched, but I don't know, anything can happen," he said.
A 2011 survey, conducted by students of Northern Marianas College, found that majority of respondents on Saipan are against the proposed reunification with Guam, while most of those surveyed on Rota are in favor of it.
In a study conducted by the NMC Marianas Reunification Survey Group, 439 respondents out of the 835 surveyed in the two islands were opposed to reunification with the US territory.
This reflects 52 percent of the total respondents. Those who are in favor of unification totaled 396 or 48 percent of those surveyed. Majority of respondents were Chamorros.
Many of the respondents believe that reunification will mean that CNMI residents will become the minority and Guam has more to gain than the Northern Marianas.
Respondents are also convinced that Guam is pushing for reunification because the US territory want some of the political freedom the CNMI currently enjoys with its relationship with the US.
Guam and the CNMI used to be a single political entity but was separated when the former was sold to the US in 1898 following the Spanish-American War.
Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, which comprises present day CNMI, was sold by Spain to Germany before Japan took over when the latter lost in World War I and was forced to give up its Pacific dominions.
