The following article originally appeared in the September/October 2006 edition of Pacificmagazine, in a special supplement entitled Sasakawa Pacific Islands Journalism Fellowship." The magazine's website can be reached via the link at the bottom of this article.

Between April and June, the Pacific Island states were the focus of a succession of summit meetings hosted by China, Japan and France, respectively. It recalled the days of the Cold War, when the United States and the former Soviet Union vied for supremacy and involved others in their power plays.

The island states are at an early stage of their development. In terms of land mass, population and domestic markets, they are small countries still in the process of building their national foundations.

For the sake of their autonomy and growth, they must make efforts to shake off their dependence on overseas development aid. At the same time, donor countries should see things from the island states' vantage point, respect their independence and refrain from imposing big-power logic on them. The participation of non-governmental organizations(NGOs) in carefully tailored assistance programs is particularly important.


The series of meetings began in April with the inaugural China-Pacific Island Countries Development and Cooperation Forum organized by China in Fiji. Participating from among the 14 countries and two territories comprising the Pacific Island Forum(PIF) were the six leaders whose countries have diplomatic ties with China. At the forum, China pledged to provide preferential loans worth RMB3 billion over the next three years and offer training to 2,000 government employees of the Pacific Islands, among other undertakings.


In May, Japan hosted the entire membership of the PIF at the Fourth Japan Pacific Islands States Forum in Okinawa. It announced it was boosting its official development assistance(ODA) by nearly 50 percent and would be extending 45 billion yen in grant aid to PIF members over a three-year period.

France, meanwhile, held the second France-Oceania Summit in Paris in June. Taking part were leaders of the PIF member states and territories plus three French Pacific territories. The summit revived and strengthened three-way cooperation between France, Australia and New Zealand, a relationship that had gone cold as a result of a French nuclear testing in the pacific.

A glance at the conference organized by Japan shows that it covered a wide range of
themes--everything from infrastructure-building (including human resources development, transportation, telecommunications, energy, and fisheries) to environmental protection (including waste processing) to education. Studying the bigger picture, however, it is clear that China is seeking to check Taiwan's influence and prevent Japan from becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council by bringing Pacific Island states with UN seats in line with its views. The new initiatives adopted by Japan, France, Australia and New Zealand appear to be precautionary measures taken in response to the Chinese agenda.