Newsletter No. 1400
News-Analysis
July 4, 2009

 

TUNISIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ABDELWAHEB ABDALLAH VISITS TOKYO

Currently, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia Abdelwaheb Abdallah is in Japan. He arrived here on the 1st and is scheduled to depart tomorrow. This visit to Japan is Abdallah’s second visit in his capacity as Minister of Foreign Affairs. His earlier visit came in July 2006, but seems to have been so unheralded that it escaped the attention of the Shingetsu Institute at the time.

At any rate, on the current visit Foreign Minister Abdallah had separate meetings with Prime Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone on the 2nd. Aso announced a plan for Japan to provide additional yen loans to Tunisia to improve the country’s infrastructure, in particular a project to make Tunisia’s commuter trains run on electricity. They also talked about the new Japan-Arab Economic Forum, which is slated to be held next year in Tunisia following its inaugural meeting in December in Tokyo.

SADAKO OGATA IN TUNISIA

In mid-June, JICA President Sadako Ogata paid a visit to Tunisia that was only lightly covered in the press. She was able to meet directly with Prime Minister Muhammad Ghannouchi on June 16th and Foreign Minister Abdelwaheb Abdallah on the 17th. Ogata pledged that JICA would further strengthen its cooperation with Tunisia, especially in the sector of the science and technology, infrastructure, as well in social sectors such as basic health services.

On the 15th, Ogata visited the Rades-La Goulette cable bridge, which was built with Japanese assistance and is the highest in Africa. The bridge was built with JICA’s financial help, as well as the technical collaboration of companies such as the Taisei Corporation, the Kajima Corporation, and Nippon Koei. Ogata declared the bridge a “symbol of Tunisian-Japanese cooperation.”