Japan, Micronesia Affirm Cooperation for Free, Open Indo-Pacific

Jiji Press

11:14 JST, February 3, 2023

Tokyo —Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Micronesian President David Panuelo agreed in Tokyo on Thursday to bolster their countries’ cooperation to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific, at a time when China is expanding its presence in the South Pacific.

During the meeting at the prime minister’s office, Panuelo also expressed his support for Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which suffered the triple meltdown after being hit by a huge earthquake and mammoth tsunami in March 2011.

At a U.N. General Assembly meeting last September, Panuelo voiced his opposition to the plan.

But the president of the Pacific island nation told a joint press conference after the bilateral summit that satisfactory Japanese explanations made him change his mind.

Panuelo said he now has no worries about the water release because he has learned that adequate technologies can prevent marine resources from being damaged.