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Japan scores diplomatic win at Pacific Islands summit with sharp rebuke aimed at China
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Delegates attend the opening session of the 10th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting in Tokyo on July 18.
PHOTO: AFP
TOKYO – Japan scored a diplomatic victory at its triennial summit with Pacific Island countries, as its customary pointed opposition against “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by threat or use of force or coercion” made it into the joint communique on July 18.
The language – conspicuously absent from the joint statement of the previous summit in 2021 – is aimed at China, and comes as a geostrategic tug-of-war in the Pacific continues to heat up, with China on one end and the United States and its allies Japan and Australia on the other.
