MOFA AFRICA DIRECTOR GENERAL ON U.S.-JAPAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TOKYO 002675 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/J AND AF/RA PASS USAID/AFR E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/17/2019 TAGS: PREL EAID SUBJECT: MOFA AFRICA DIRECTOR GENERAL ON U.S.-JAPAN COOPERATION IN AFRICA REF: TOKYO 1967 Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission James P. Zumwalt per reasons. 1. 4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) The DCM, accompanied by poloff, met November 2 with MOFA Director General for African Affairs Yoshitaka Akimoto to continue discussions of U.S.-Japan cooperation in Africa. Akimoto recalled that in August (reftel) he had met with the DCM and agreed to strengthen cooperation in Africa. Building on that meeting, Akimoto said that MOFA had developed a list of possible joint projects and that the Japanese Embassy in Washington had provided that list to the Department (See paragraph 5) and invited comments and counterproposals. ¶2. (C) He suggested that the next step would be to arrange consultations. Akimoto had sought to travel to Washington in July to meet with Assistant Secretary Carson but was unable to do so owing to preparations for the Secretary,s trip to Africa. He would still like to meet with A/S Carson and suggested early 2010 would be workable. Akimoto stressed that a final list of agreed projects is not a prerequisite for bilateral consultations, adding that identifying two or three projects would be a good starting point. ¶3. (C) Mentioning his recent trip to Somalia and Kenya, Akimoto suggested Somalia as an area for cooperation. For example, he noted that while the U.S. is building the Somalia Transitional Federal Government,s (TFG) security forces, the GOJ does not recognize the TFG but can support Somalia,s police forces. He suggested, for example, that Kenya could be asked to train Somali police in Kenya with Japanese financial support. Since the U.S. was not training the police, U.S. and Japanese efforts would be complimentary without being duplicative. ¶4. (C) The DCM agreed that U.S.-Japan collaboration in Africa would be beneficial and should be pursued. He asked if Akimoto had any sense yet of the new Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government,s views on assistance to Africa. While conceding that Africa was not in the DPJ,s first 100 days, priorities, Akimoto noted the Hatoyama administration,s statement that it had no intention of simply repeating the past administration,s beautiful words and that it wanted tangible results. He added that Foreign Minister Okada has been a strong proponent of dispatching Japanese Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops to Sudan. ¶5. (SBU) Begin text GOJ non-paper. Japan-US Cooperation in Assistance to Africa: Areas to explore possibility of future cooperation (Draft) ¶1. Sectoral issues (1) Support for PKO training centres -Cooperation at the PKO training centres to which both Japan and the US are providing support (Egypt, Mali, Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana, and Nigeria) Examples: jointly organizing training programs by combining dispatch of experts and the material support of the two countries. (2) Encouragement for improvement of business environment in Africa -Making recommendations and conducting reviews aiming for the improvement of business environment for the countries in which both Japan and the U.S. have high interest, while involving Japanese and American companies/organizations operating in such countries. (3) Support for good governance - Dispatching experts and advisors from Japan and the US to the countries which concluded review processes under the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and in the phase of implementing national action programs, in order to provide assistance and advice for successful implementation of the APRM. (4) Food Security - Collaborating in view of increasing key food staples in specific countries such as Tanzania, Mozambique, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, and Mali. Engaging private sectors should also be encouraged in this area. (5) Consortium of interdisciplinary centres of health innovation - As a follow-up to the G-8 L,Aquila Summit, US National TOKYO 00002675 002 OF 002 Health Institutes of Health is taking the lead to create a network of centres of health innovation in Sub-Sahara Africa, which aims to train health researchers and health officials, creates solutions to local and regional health challenges, and provides an independent source of information for health policies. Japanese experts have participated from the early stages of the discussion on the concept and Japan will continue to support the program. ¶2. Regional Issues (1) Sudan -Explore ways to collaborate so that Japan-US cooperation can add extra values by both countries sharing responsibilities, particularly in the area of implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA)and improvement of South Sudan,s capability in governance and security. (2) Somalia - Explore ways such as providing human resources, material assistance or financial support for police and civil servant training programs conducted in neighboring countries such as Kenya, in view of supporting capability of Somalia in the maintenance of security. End text GOJ non-paper. ROOS