Japan bolsters US security infrastructure in the South Pacific, hindering Xi Jinping’s plans for New Caledonia

From July 16 to 18, 2024, Tokyo hosted the 10th Pacific Island Leaders Meeting (PALM10), the region’s largest security event under the Japanese Cabinet’s leadership.

The South Pacific states declared Japan’s right to send warships and aircraft to their ports to strengthen regional security; agreed to expand practical and technological exchanges at the coast guard level; and agreed to expand investment, financial, infrastructure, trade, energy, humanitarian, environmental, educational, and cultural cooperation with Japan.

In the end, the PALM10 participants issued a declaration that indirectly opposed China, Russia, and the DPRK’s aggression. The meeting in Tokyo was one of the harshest blows to China’s expansionist campaign in the South Pacific since 2022.