Japan will host the PALM Second Ministerial Interim Meeting (MIM2)
1. On October 26 (Sat), Japan will host the Second Ministerial Interim Meeting(MIM2) of the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM) process at the Iikura Guest House, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo.
2. The Meeting will be attended by participants of ministerial level such as Foreign Ministers from 16 members of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). From Japan, Mr. Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs, will attend it and preside the meeting with Hon. Phillip H. Muller, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Republic of the Marshall Islands as co-chair which assumes the Chairmanship of the PIF.
3. Japan has been organising the Pacific Islands Leaders Summit in Japan every 3 years since 1997 to construct close cooperative relations by discussing various issues in the region in a frank manner. In 2010, the Ministerial Interim Meeting has begun in the year between two Summit meetings. In the MIM2, the Participants will (1) overview the follow-up process of the PALM6 in May 2012, and (2) discuss mid and long term policies for the enhancement of relations between Japan and the Pacific Islands region as a preparatory process for the PALM 7 to be held in 2015.
4. Furthermore, the guest participants will visit the city of Sendai from afternoon of 26 to 27 October, and they will meet representatives from the local community to be briefed on disaster reconstruction and local economy reconstruction and from local companies that are interested in investment to the Pacific Islands region. They will also visit Matsushima where tourists are getting back from the Great East Japan Earthquake.
5. While the strategic environment of the region drastically changes, this meeting is expected to reinforce the concrete cooperative relations between Japan and Pacific Islands region as “co-working peers”.
(note) 16 PIF members
Australia, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue (Self-government in free association with New Zealand), Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.