Japan says to send peacekeepers to Africa
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ADDIS ABABA - Japan has decided to send peacekeepers to Africa to help build the continent’s peacekeeping capacity, a Japanese envoy said here Thursday.
Japan’s former prime minister Yoshiro Mori, who is here to represent Japan at the 10th African Union (AU) Summit, did not mention which African country Japan would send peacekeeping troops to.
Observers here said this is the first time that Japan has pledged to send peacekeepers to Africa.
At the opening ceremony of the AU summit, Mori, who led the Japan-AU parliamentarians’ friendship league, gave a speech on Japan’s Africa policy to African heads of state and government, urging them to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) to be held in Japan in May.
“The year 2008 is extremely important for Japan’s Africa diplomacy as Japan is to hold the TICAD meeting,” said Mori, who attended the summit on behalf of Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
African countries are facing challenges to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Japan would like to support their efforts to meet the MDGs, he said.
During his stay in Ethiopia, Mori has held separate talks with African leaders.
Speculation is growing that Japan is having difficulty in securing a good attendance at TICAD meeting, although Japan’s Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said earlier this month that Japan hopes to have at least 30 African heads of state and government take part.
Japan has in recent years been active in supporting African development in the forms of aid and investment on the continent.
As host of the African development conference and president of the Group of Eight nations’ summit this year, it is crucial for Japan to win support and cooperation from African nations in building global consensus for a post-2012 global warming framework.
Japan has also long been seeking support from African nations for its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Filed by Egor Ouzikov under Conflict Prevention and Human Security