Japan will hold a major conference on African development this week amid growing competition with its regional rivals for influence in the poverty-stricken but resource-rich continent.
With China and India seeking to forge closer ties with the region and secure commodities to fuel their economic booms, the event is seen as a key opportunity for Japan to maintain its diplomatic clout.
Japan has invited 52 African countries to the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which it hosts every five years along with the UN, the World Bank and other organizations.
BIG NAMES
Leaders from 44 African countries are expected to meet in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, including Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and South African President Thabo Mbeki.
Talks will focus on tackling food shortages, boosting economic growth and reducing poverty.
Japan has long used aid as a key diplomatic tool. It was the world’s top donor in 1991, but its assistance is slipping as the debt-laden country tightens its belt.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda is expected to formally announce plans at the conference to double Japan’s financial assistance to Africa by 2012.
“We must bring more fresh money to help African partners,” Masato Kitera, director-general for African affairs, said at Japan’s foreign ministry.
PRIVATE INVESTMENT
Japan hopes to use some of its overseas development aid (ODA) to help spur badly needed private-sector interest in the war-ravaged continent.
Japanese companies “may hesitate to invest in Africa, judging the risk or the cost as too high,” Kitera said. “The Japanese ODA can reduce the risk or cost of the private sector going to Africa.”
The event, which is expected to draw 2,500 participants, comes as Japan looks to boost its diplomatic profile ahead of the G8 summit, which it will host in July.
Gaining support from African countries, which account for about 30 percent of the world’s nations, is key for Japan to achieve its diplomatic goals, such as a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, officials said.
Thousands gathered across New Zealand yesterday to celebrate the signing of the country’s founding document and some called for an end to government policies that critics say erode the rights promised to the indigenous Maori population. As the sun rose on the dawn service at Waitangi where the Treaty of Waitangi was first signed between the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840, some community leaders called on the government to honor promises made 185 years ago. The call was repeated at peaceful rallies that drew several hundred people later in the day. “This government is attacking tangata whenua [indigenous people] on all
RIGHTS FEARS: A protester said Beijing would use the embassy to catch and send Hong Kongers to China, while a lawmaker said Chinese agents had threatened Britons Hundreds of demonstrators on Saturday protested at a site earmarked for Beijing’s controversial new embassy in London over human rights and security concerns. The new embassy — if approved by the British government — would be the “biggest Chinese embassy in Europe,” one lawmaker said earlier. Protester Iona Boswell, a 40-year-old social worker, said there was “no need for a mega embassy here” and that she believed it would be used to facilitate the “harassment of dissidents.” China has for several years been trying to relocate its embassy, currently in the British capital’s upmarket Marylebone district, to the sprawling historic site in the
The administration of US President Donald Trump has appointed to serve as the top public diplomacy official a former speech writer for Trump with a history of doubts over US foreign policy toward Taiwan and inflammatory comments on women and minorities, at one point saying that "competent white men must be in charge." Darren Beattie has been named the acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a senior US Department of State official said, a role that determines the tone of the US' public messaging in the world. Beattie requires US Senate confirmation to serve on a permanent basis. "Thanks to
‘IMPOSSIBLE’: The authors of the study, which was published in an environment journal, said that the findings appeared grim, but that honesty is necessary for change Holding long-term global warming to 2°C — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a new analysis published by leading scientists. Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming. An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate