Pacific Islands Summit Adopts Leaders' Declaration

The 8th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting held substantive discussions at Spa Resort Hawaiians,a hot spring leisure complex in the city of Iwaki, on May 19. Participants wrapped up the two-day event by adopting a lesders' declaration, in which the leaders welcomed and expressed support for the steady progress of Fukushima Prefecture and Iwaki in reconstruction from the huge earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.

During the summit meeting, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that Japan has delivered on its pledge to provide Pacific island nations with financial assistance of at lest 55 billion yen and promots human resources development and exchanges involving 4,000 people. Japan made the promise at the precious PALM gatherring in 2015, also held in Iwaki.

On additional aid to the 14 member nations of the Pacific Islands Forum, which attended the latest summit meeting, Prime Minister Abe unveiled a policy of giving support in the areas of maritime seurity and greater use of renewable energy sources, as well as promoting personnel development and exchanges for 5,000 people or more in the coming three years, mainly to strengthen disaster preparation and reponse capacity.

In addition,Japan expressed its intention to step up coopreration in sports, making use of the opportunitions offered by the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.

At Aquamarine Fukushima, an ocean science museum in Iwaki, the wives of the leaders and local high school students attended a symposium and shared an understanding about the need for better protection of the maritime environment and marine resources. END 福島民報より。