Japan lavished ?45 billion (US$410 million) in fresh aid to Pacific Island nations at a leaders' summit yesterday and walked away with unified support for Tokyo's bid to join the UN Security Council.
The offer marks a big jump in Japanese aid in what some see as a growing battle of dollar diplomacy with China to hold sway over the region. China, which opposes Japan's UN aspirations, last month offered millions of dollars in aid to its Pacific allies.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced the package yesterday at the end of a two-day meeting of Pacific leaders in Okinawa, winning dearly needed backing for Japan's beleaguered push for a Security Council seat.
"We in the Pacific have given our support to Japan," said Michael Somare, prime minister of Papua New Guinea and co-chair of the Pacific Island summit. "Japan has made a substantial contribution, not only in the region, but in international communities."
Friendships with the far-flung and impoverished Pacific states are an easy way for governments to win backing at international venues like the UN. The countries have tiny populations, meaning relatively small amounts of aid can go far, but they still wield one vote, the same as larger countries.
Together, the Pacific Island nations attending the Okinawa summit comprise only a fraction of the world's population but hold 14 UN votes, or about 7 percent of the total.
Environmentalists meanwhile accuse Japan of using Pacific aid to buy pro-whaling votes at the International Whaling Commission, a charge Japan denies.
"The Foreign Ministry has been very keen on using aid strategically," said political analyst Shigenori Okazaki. "Each of these countries has one vote."
Japan says its aid is about creating a more stable and prosperous region, not about jousting with China, a country that only recently got into the overseas aid business.
Koizumi said he welcomed China's development help to the region.
"I would not take that as a threat," Koizumi said. "If China and other countries wish to provide assistance and can provide assistance to various developing countries, fine. Please do so by all means."
Somare echoed the sentiment that Japan's aid had nothing to do with China.
"I don't think it should be seen as competing for influence in the region," he said. "I think Pacific Island people are capable of making their own decisions."
Just last month, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) jetted to the South Pacific and pledged 3 billion yuan (US$374 million) in aid to countries such as Fiji, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. The aid targeted mining, agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aviation.
China has typically used the aid to win support for Beijing over Taiwan. But China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, is also trying to block momentum for a seat for Tokyo, saying Japan has not properly atoned for its militaristic past.
Koizumi called Japan's aid package and the island nations' backing in the Security Council spat "an important milestone for Japan's foreign policy."
The aid will target education, economic development, health care, environmental protection and disaster mitigation projects, like early warning systems for tsunamis. It will also fund the training of thousands of civil servants.
The leaders also discussed recent unrest in the Solomon Islands and agreed to cooperate on fostering good governance in the region, while cracking down on international crime and terrorism.
Japan said it would divvy the aid among the countries according to needs and based upon the review of project proposals.
Japan has hosted the Pacific Islands four times since 1997, but Tokyo announced no new aid packages at the last summit in 2003.
Furthering the growing interest in unidentified flying objects (UFOs), or what the US government refers to as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), the US Department of Defense on Thursday confirmed that photos and videos of UFOs leaked in the past few months were legitimate and taken by US Navy personnel. Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough confirmed to CNN that images and footage of a blinking triangular object in the sky, along with other aerial phenomena that were categorized as a “sphere,” “acorn” and “metallic blimp,” were taken by navy personnel in 2019. Gough told CNN that the department would not comment further on the
DRAWING DISMAY: Giving a forum to the coup leaders at the 10-country bloc’s talks in Jakarta this weekend would legitimize their rule, democracy advocates said Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is to join a special ASEAN summit on the weekend in his first official trip since masterminding a coup which deposed Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday. The Feb. 1 coup triggered a massive uprising in Myanmar, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets to demand a return to democracy, while civil servants have boycotted work in a bid to shutter the junta’s administration. The Burmese military junta has deployed lethal force to quell the anti-coup movement, killing more than 720 people and
AMID NEGOTIATIONS: Tehran for the first time confirmed that there was an explosion at its main nuclear facility on April 11, but denied that it was caused by a cyberattack Iran on Saturday named a suspect in the April 11 attack on its Natanz nuclear facility that damaged centrifuges, saying that he had fled the country “hours before” the sabotage happened. While the extent of the damage from the sabotage remains unclear, it comes as Iran tries to negotiate with world powers over allowing the US to re-enter its tattered nuclear deal and lift the economic sanctions it faces. Already, Iran has begun enriching uranium up to 60 percent purity in response — three times higher than ever before — although in small quantities. The sabotage and Iran’s response have further inflamed
China could see its number of births fall to less than 10 million annually in the next five years if the government does not quickly abolish its policy of limiting families to two children, an expert was quoted by media as saying. China’s total population might also fall in a few years, Guangdong Academy of Population Development director Dong Yuzheng (董玉整) told Yicai, a Chinese financial news outlet. The number of babies born in China fell by 580,000 to 14.65 million in 2019 and the birthrate of 10.48 per thousand was the lowest since 1949 when present methods of collating data
RSS