Japan pledges $578m to Pacific

IWAKI – Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has pledged A$578 million in aid to Pacific island nations to help them combat climate change and natural disasters.

Abe made the pledge as leaders of 14 Pacific island nations gathered for a two-day meeting, which began on Friday in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, to discuss their development needs.

“As a pledge of the Japanese government, we will provide no less than 55 billion yen (A$578 million) to you in the upcoming three years in order to foster resilient capabilities that will not be defeated by climate change or disasters,” he told the meeting.

The seventh round of Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) came as host Japan attempts to boost its profile in the Pacific, at a time of growing Chinese economic and political influence in the region.

The meeting, held every three years, was also attended by senior officials from Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

Pacific island leaders have long complained about rising sea levels eroding their coastlines and of the increasing severity and frequency of extreme climate phenomena, such as super typhoons, likely caused by global warming.

They have pushed developed nations – responsible for much of the emissions associated with global warming – to extend help to cope with damage brought by harsh climate patterns.

Most recently, in March, Vanuatu was hit by Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam, which killed 11 people when sustained winds of more than 250 kilometres per hour tore through the country, affecting about 166,600 inhabitants.

In the previous PALM round in 2012, Japan pledged up to $500 million over three years to members, focused on damage mitigation efforts.

Japan decided to host this year’s conference in Iwaki, southern Fukushima, to highlight the devastation wrought by a magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami in 2011, and the region’s subsequent reconstruction.

The city is far enough from the crippled Fukushima nuclear reactors not to expose the guests to dangerous levels of radiation, but it still serves as a grim reminder of the world’s worst atomic accident in a generation.

Ahead of the conference, Japan recognised as a sovereign state the tiny island nation of Niue, home to 1611 inhabitants, and perched some 2400 kilometres north-east of New Zealand.

This was revealed by Japan’s director of Pacific Ocean Division Asia and Oceania Affairs bureau during a briefing with Pacific journalists in Tokyo.

“State recognition is a unilateral act. So Japan can decide when to recognise one area as a state. So this time before PALM meeting we decided this is a time to recognise Niue as a state.”

Niue becomes the 195th state recognised by Tokyo as it attempts to boost its diplomacy in the region.