Japan will push for an African seat at the United Nations using its seat on the world body’s Security Council. “Japan reiterates its determination to redress the historic injustice against Africa of not being represented through permanent membership in the Security Council,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Tunis, Tunisia, on Sunday. “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 is facing a ‘moment of truth’. In June, Japan was one of five countries elected to hold a non-permanent seat at the United Nations for the years 2023 and 2024. The UNSC consists of 15 members, five of which are permanent and have veto power: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. The other 10 positions are filled by countries for two-year terms, five of which are announced each year. Speaking live on video from Tokyo after testing positive for COVID-19 days earlier, Kishida reiterated a pledge announced Saturday to invest about $30 billion in Africa over the next three years, promising smaller amounts for food security in coordination with the African Development Bank. He also announced that Japan would appoint a special envoy to the Horn of Africa, where a long drought prompted the UN weather service to warn last week of an “unprecedented humanitarian disaster”. Kishida said Japan would pump $8.3 million into the troubled but gold-rich Liptako-Gourma tri-region between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, which has been devastated by attacks by armed groups in recent years. The aid will aim to “develop good cooperation between residents and local authorities” and help improve administrative services for the region’s five million residents, he said. The Japanese leader also pledged help to train police and support “fair and transparent” elections across the continent, pledging Japan’s support for the rule of law in Africa.
