2ND LD: Japan pledges 50 bil. yen to support Pacific island nations

SHIMUKAPPU, Japan, May 23 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING INFO)
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso vowed Saturday to tackle climate change with
Pacific island nations as ''equal partners'' as he announced a total of 50
billion yen in aid to the nations for the next three years to help them counter
various challenges.
Concluding a two-day summit in Shimukappu, Hokkaido, Japan and the 16 Pacific
Islands Forum members adopted the ''Islanders' Hokkaido Declaration'' affirming
stronger ties and cooperation in dealing with climate change by forming a
''Pacific Environment Community.''
The 50 billion yen in aid, an increase from the 45 billion yen Japan offered at
the previous Pacific islands summit in 2006, includes 6.8 billion yen aid to
facilitate solar power generation and seawater desalination.
By helping the Pacific island nations cope with climate change, which has
become a crucial issue for them, Japan apparently aims to enhance its global
presence in the run-up to a key U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen in
December to adopt a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol.
At the press conference following the meeting, Niue Premier Toke Talagi, who
co-hosted the summit with Aso, said, ''It is imperative that we take action
now,'' as countries like Kiribati and Tuvalu are sinking due to rising sea
levels caused by global warming.
Aso said he hopes that the relationship between Japan and the Pacific island
nations and regions would be further strengthened, saying, ''The cooperation
(provided by Japan) shows it values the Pacific island nations and the
willingness to contribute to developing the nations and their human
resources.''
Japan's continued assistance to the Pacific island nations also appears to
reflect its efforts to enhance relationships with these countries, which have
supported Tokyo's push for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, while
China and Taiwan have also recently been stepping up support to these nations.
Japan also said it would assist in developing a total of 3,500 human resources
in the areas of the environment, health and education, while promoting
person-to-person exchanges of more than 1,000 young people in the next three
years.
At the summit, Aso explained an initiative by which Japan and the World Bank
are considering establishing a disaster insurance system for Pacific island
countries that would allow them to receive immediate liquidity if hit by a
devastating earthquake or tsunami, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.
Taking into account the situation that about 80 percent of tuna and bonito
consumed in Japan are caught in the Pacific island area, the leaders also
reconfirmed the importance of developing, implementing and complying with
comprehensive fisheries conservation.
During Saturday's session, the leaders discussed ways to overcome
vulnerabilities facing the Pacific island nations such as health, water supply,
education and human security.
The leaders also discussed ways to alleviate the adverse effect of the global
economic crisis on the island countries and the issue of the new influenza,
which has been spreading rapidly around the world including Japan, the
officials said.
At the outset of the Saturday's meeting, Aso told the leaders of Pacific island
nations, ''It is important to cooperate globally in countering the threats of
infections that spread rapidly across borders.''
''We'd like to cooperate in dealing with the issue by sharing information and
measures to (prevent) the spread of infections,'' he added.
Aso met separately with the leaders of the island nations including the Solomon
Islands, Samoa, Nauru, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Tonga on the sidelines
of the summit to boost Tokyo's ties with each country.
During Friday's session, Japan and the Pacific island nations agreed to work
together in the battle against climate change and to cooperate in adopting a
''fair and effective'' carbon-capping framework to replace the Kyoto Protocol,
due to expire in 2012.
The nations attending the summit, apart from Japan, are members of the Pacific
Islands Forum, which was launched in 1971.
Japan began hosting the Pacific islands summit in 1997 and has since held one
every three years. The fourth summit was held in 2006 in Okinawa Prefecture,
where Japan said it would provide fresh aid worth 45 billion yen over the three
years from fiscal 2006.
The Pacific Islands Forum groups Australia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati,
the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New
Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.
==Kyodo