Pacific leaders meet in Okinawa [1]
Monday, May 29, 2006 - 11:20. Updated on Thursday, July 16, 2015 - 11:08.
by Pesi Fonua
The Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi officially opened the Pacific Island Leaders Meeting, PALM 2006, on May 26, in Okinawa, Japan.
This tri-annual gathering, the fourth of its kind since the first PALM in 1998, aims at engaging the Japanese government directly with Pacific Leaders to identify Pacific Island governments' development needs and how they can be assisted by the Japan.
Since their first meeting in 1998 a working strategy has been formulated, which was put into writing in the Okinawa Initiative of May 2003. The Initiative is a joint action plan, emphasizing the importance of environmental matters and human resource development.
The Japanese Prime Minister this afternoon expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the Okinawa Initiative, and the support of his government for the Pacific Plan that was approved by Pacific leaders at the Pacific Island Forum meeting in Papua New Guinea last October.
Prime Minister Koizumi wished for an Okinawa Partnership initiative to be signed during the PALM 2006 meeting, held at at the conference room of the Busena Terrace Hotel, in Okinawa.
The 17 participants at the PALM 2006 were:
Rt Hon.Grand Chief, sir Michael Somare, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea;
HE Mr Kessai H. Note, President of the Marshall Islands;
HE Mr Tommy Remengesau Jr., President of Palau;
HE Mr Joseph J. Urusemal, President of the Federated States of Micronesia;
HE Mr Anote Tong, President of Kiribati;.
HE Mr Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru;
Hon. Mr Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Prime Minister of Samoa;
Hon. Mr Young Vivian, Prime Minister of Niue;
Hon. Mr Maatia Toafa, Prime Minister of Tuvalu;
Hon. Mr Ham Lini, Prime Minister of Vanuatu;
Hon. Mr Jim Marurai, Prime Minister of the Cook Islands;
Hon. Dr Feleti Vaka'uta Sevele, Prime Minister of Tonga;
Hon. Dr Dudley Tausinga, Deputy Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands;
Hon. Mr Kaliopate Tavola, Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Fiji;
Hon. Mr Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs of New Zealand;
Hon. Teresa Gamgano, MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Australia;
Mr Gregory Urwin, Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.
The PALM 2006 ended on Saturday May 27.