On behalf of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the government of Japan for hosting the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in Tokyo.
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, as a private nonprofit organization, has been working to deepen relations between the Pacific island countries and Japan since 1988, when we hosted the first Pacific Island Nations Conference in Tokyo.
Three decades ago, it was crucial for the leaders of the Pacific island countries and Japan to meet and have an open and honest dialogue with each other to build mutual understanding and trust. Today, while the Pacific island countries are diverse societies, they face many common issues, such as climate change, rising sea levels, natural hazards and disasters, limited access to higher-quality education and public health systems, the energy transition, economic sustainability, solid waste management, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and transnational crime.
In response, the Pacific island countries developed the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent and launched its implementation plan in November last year to pass on sustainable societies and healthy natural environments to future generations as stewards of the Pacific Ocean.
Japan is essentially a maritime island state like the Pacific island countries, and it is critical to work together to address these challenges in a coherent manner. To this end, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation is working to launch what it calls “Flowers,” short for Freely Linked Opportunities with Efforts and Results — a platform for sharing information and practices to promote industry-academia-public-private collaboration among the Pacific island countries, Japan and development partners.
PALM 10 will be the first face-to-face summit in six years. It is an incredibly important opportunity for Japan to rebuild kizuna (enduring bonds between people) and trust with the Pacific island countries and the region. I look forward to the outcomes of the summit, which will lay the foundation for the future of the Pacific island countries and Japan for decades to come.
This content was compiled in collaboration with the foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the newspaper.
