Nikkei wrote that Foreign Minister Motegi announced Japan’s plans to finance the installation of a fiber-optic cable to the Pacific island nation of Palau in cooperation with the United States and Australia in a joint video message with Secretary of State Pompeo and Australian Foreign Minister Payne to an international forum held in Vietnam on Wednesday. Government-affiliated financial institutions of the three countries will finance the project, which will link Palau to an undersea cable that will connect Singapore with the United States. Kyodo News filed a similar report, saying that the video message was aired at a meeting of the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Vietnam.