Partnerships and implementation of the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent (2050 Strategy), as well as the preparations for the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM10) in Tokyo this July were on the agenda for the 5th Japan-Pacific Foreign Ministerial meeting in Suva on February 12, according to the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat (PIFS) in Suva.
“The Ministerial Interim Meeting is to follow-up on previous PALM commitments and to allow preparatory discussions for the PALM later in the year, which will be the first face to face session since the COVID-19 pandemic,” PIFS stated.
Forum general secretary Henry Puna said the Japan — Pacific Island Forum Leaders Meeting has come to symbolise a level of mutual respect and dialogue as the way to deepen progress towards common ground, “as a collective, between our sea of islands and global development partners such as Japan”.
Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Yoko Kamikawa led the Japan delegation then visited Samoa to pledge a 2.4billion yen grant to the island country after her meetings in Fiji last week.
Japan is Fiji’s biggest bilateral lender through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and is also influential as one of the founding members of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Fiji’s largest multilateral external lender according to the Ministry of Finance.
