Newsletter No. 1375
News-Analysis
June 4, 2009

 

PRIME MINISTER TARO ASO MAY MEET WITH LIBYAN LEADER MUAMMAR QADHAFI

The Yomiuri Shinbun has reported that there is a prospect that Prime Minister Taro Aso may hold direct talks with Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi on the sidelines of the G-8 Summit in Italy. Qadhafi is expected to be at the summit because Libya currently holds the presidency of the African Union. If the meeting actually occurs, it would be the first “official” meeting ever between a sitting Japanese premier and the long-time Libyan leader, who will celebrate forty years in power this September.

The Yomiuri speculates that Aso would use the occasion to call for Libya to improve the conditions for domestic investment so that Japanese companies could more effectively move into the Libyan energy market. On the other hand, sources tell the Shingetsu Institute that this Yomiuri Shinbun article should be viewed more as a trial balloon rather than a confirmed plan for a meeting.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a statement in early February welcoming Qadhafi’s election as president of the African Union.

Other Japan-Libya Contacts

There are two other stories on Japan-Libya relations that we collected last December but have not yet had occasion to report.

The Libyan Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Libyan Secretary-General of the People’s Committee for Manpower, Training, and Employment met in Tripoli with an unnamed Japanese dignitary. The visitor was only identified as a Diet member and former Minister of State for Science and Technology. The discussion seems to have centered on the possibility of Japan offering assistance to build infrastructure projects in Libya. The whole report was not very specific.

More concretely, AFP reported last December that Libya’s national maritime transport company purchased six oil tankers valued at US$400 million dollars. Four of the tankers will be built by South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries and the other two by Japan’s Sasebo Heavy Industries.

The national maritime transport company is headed by Hannibal Qadhafi, a son of the Libyan leader. The company holds a near-monopoly on the transport of Libyan oil. Its fleet currently comprises eighteen tankers. With two million barrels per day, Libya is the third-largest oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria and Angola. It plans to increase its production to three million barrels a day by 2013.

ADDENDUM
June 5, 2009

A Kyodo News report today indicates that the Aso-Qadhafi meeting is indeed likely to happen. When former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited Tokyo this week, he was told by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori that Prime Minister Taro Aso is expected to meet with the Libyan leader on the sidelines of July’s G-8 summit in Italy.