TUNIS —
Japan will use its place on the
UN Security Council to push for an African seat
on the top world body, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Sunday.
“Japan reiterates
its determination to redress the historical injustice against Africa of not
being represented through a permanent membership on the Security Council,”
Kishida told the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in
Tunis.
“In order for the
UN to work effectively for peace and stability there is an urgent need to
strengthen the UN as a whole through Security Council reform,” he said.
The UN faces “a
moment of truth”, he added.
Japan was among
five countries elected in June to hold a non-permanent seat on the UN Security
Council for 2023 and 2024.
Kishida, speaking
over live video from Tokyo after testing positive for COVID-19 days earlier,
reiterated a pledge announced on Saturday to invest some $30 billion in Africa
over the next three years.
He also announced
that Japan would appoint a special envoy to the Horn of Africa, where a long
drought has prompted the UN’s weather agency to warn this week of an
“unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.
Kishida said Japan
would pump $8.3 million into the troubled but gold-rich Liptako-Gourma
tri-borders area between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso that has been ravaged by
extremist attacks in recent years.
The aid will aim
to “develop good cooperation between residents and local authorities” and help
improve administrative services for the area’s 5 million residents, he said.
The Japanese
premier also promised aid to train police officers and support “fair and
transparent” elections across the continent, pledging Japan’s support for the
rule of law in Africa.
The UN Security
Council is made up of 15 members, five of whom are permanent and have
veto-wielding power: the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain.
The other ten positions
are filled by other countries for two-year stints, five of which are announced
each year.
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