Newsletter No. 638
News-Analysis
June 6, 2007

 

A JAPANESE SALUTE TO PRESIDENT TOURE OF MALI

Our first story on Japanese relations with Mali has appeared. As can be seen from the MOFA announcement below, a Diet member will be dispatched to the inauguration ceremony of President Amadou Toumani Toure, who has completed his first five-year term, and is about to begin his second. Two terms is the current legal limit.

Mali is an African republic wedged between Algeria, Mauritania, and Niger. It has a population of about 12 million and has been a functioning democracy since 1992. The people are about 90% Muslim of various ethnic groups, and very poor.

Japan recognized the independence of Mali on October 4, 1960, but as the announcement below makes clear, they never established an embassy in Bamako. Apparently, that will change next January.

Koya Nishikawa, the special envoy to Mali, is a fourth-term LDP House of Representatives member with a background as a Tochigi Prefecture bureaucrat, and involvement in agricultural policies. It’s not immediately clear to me why he would be chosen for this task.

Dispatch of Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Japan to Inauguration Ceremony of the President of the Republic of Mali
June 4, 2007

1. The Government of Japan will dispatch Mr. Koya Nishikawa, Member of the House of Representatives, as Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of Japan to attend the inauguration ceremony of President of the Republic of Mali, H.E. Mr. Amadou Toumani Toure, to be held on June 8 (Fri) in the capital, Bamako.

2. A presidential election was held in the Republic of Mali on April 29 (Sun). Following the announcement of the re-election of the incumbent President Toure on May 12 (Sat), the forthcoming presidential inauguration ceremony has been announced to take place.

3. The fact that the recent presidential election was carried out peacefully without major turmoil is significant as it indicates that democracy has taken root in Mali. In addition, Japan will establish a Japanese Embassy in Mali in January 2008, which shows that the bilateral relations have become closer between Japan and the Republic of Mali. The dispatch of the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy has been decided upon from the viewpoint of further strengthening the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries.