Céline Pajon is Head of Japan Research at the Center for Asian and Indo-Pacific Studies of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), Paris. She also coordinates the research program on Pacific Islands, set up in 2022. Céline is a Senior Researcher with the Japan Chair at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (VUB) and an International Research Fellow with the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Tokyo. Her area of expertise is Japan’s foreign and defence policy, as well as geostrategic dynamics of the Indo-Pacific area, including the position of France and Europe in the region, and their policies vis à vis the Pacific Islands.