China's aircraft carrier Liaoningduring a new training mission. Japan is keen to use the PALM8 talks to promote its Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOIP) in the South Pacific as a designed countermeasure to China’s growing ambitions in Asia. (Xinhua/Zeng Tao)
The 8th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM 8) will give Japan a chance to promote its Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy (FOIP) in the South Pacific.
Foreign policy analysts believe the strategy, which is supported by American President Donald Trump, is a designed countermeasure to China’s perceived growing ambitions in Asia.
The PALM meeting will give Fiji and the Pacific Islands Countries (PICs) a rare chance to seek clarification from Japan’s president Shinzo Abe about their role in the strategy.
Related stories
On May 18-19, Mr Abe will co-chair the meeting with Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Malielegaoi as Japan aims to build stronger relationships in the region.
The Fijian delegation will be led by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and includes Minister for Industry, Trade, Tourism and Lands Faiyaz Koya and his permanent secretary Shaheen Ali.
The Permanent Secretary in the Office of the PM, Yogesh Karan, is accompanying the delegation.
There are a few important areas up for discussion in Fukushima, Japan.
The issue of maritime security is expected to recur at the meeting, with academic Rieko Hayakawa recently highlighting the limits of PICs to police their Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).
“At this moment the large Pacific Ocean is a lawless space for all kinds of transnational crimes, such as human trafficking, illicit drug trade, illegal fishing, and illegal migration,” she wrote in May for the Japan Forward.
Part of the FOIP strategy are matters of sustainable fisheries and ocean conservation, two issues that have long been talked about in the South Pacific.
Pacific Island leaders will also look to strengthen the basis for sustainable development in the region, particularly in regard to climate change.
Japan’s Government, through its agency the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA), has been investing in and promoting renewable energy projects in Fiji and the region.
Judging by Mr Bainimarama’s comments in Bonn, Germany, last week, there will be calls for a greater contribution.
“What I find troubling is the lack of awareness that is continually emerging in opinion polls in developed countries,” he said at Dialogue on Action for Climate Change Empowerment.
“It is undoubtedly part of the reason that the political response in some places to the need for climate action isn’t as great as it should be.”
Connecting Pacific citizens with a focus on movement and people-to-people interaction will also be part of the talks at the summit.
Together with that, ways to further upgrade human resources in the region is also likely to feature prominently during the talks
The PICs will hope to further secure instruments, similar to JICA’s Pacific- Leaders’ Educational Assistance for Development of State (LEADS) scholarship programmes, to aid this endeavour.
New Caledonia and French Polynesia will be the new entrants in the meeting after the two French territories graciously accepted a Japanese Government invite.
The decision means a Francophone Pacific view will be given a seat at the table that has, since 1997, been a purely Anglophone Pacific space.
They will join Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and ministerial representation from Australia and New Zealand.
Feedback: sheldon.chanel@fijisun.com.fj
