Japan Charge d’Affaires Kazuyuki Ohdaira said Tuesday that the Japanese cabinet has approved a $2.2 million grant to support energy needs in the Marshall Islands. The agreement requires the Marshall Islands to chip in an additional $1.1 million to the fund.
The new grant follows consistent Marshall Islands votes of support for Japan at the International Whaling Commission, the backing of Japan’s bid for seat on the United Nations Security Council and a state visit the president of the Marshall Islands made to Japan earlier this year.
This is the first large non-construction or fisheries grant from Japan.
Since the 1980s, all large Japan grants have been provided in the form of construction projects, such as docks, roads, and a new hospital, or for fisheries development activities. Japan is the third largest aid donor to the Marshall Islands behind the United States and Taiwan.
“This is the first time for the Marshall Islands to receive this type of grant aid from the government of Japan,” said Ohdaira. “This grant has been decided thanks to the long-standing close relationship between the two nations as well as to both countries’ efforts to further strengthen the relationship (through) efforts like the successful visit of President Litokwa Tomeing to Japan last April.”
An agreement for the grant is to be signed early next month, and the funding will be provided by March, Ohdaira said.
Japan was a colonial administrator of the Marshall Islands from 1915 until the end of World War II, when American forces wrested the islands from the Japanese.
