Japan, China, S. Korea agree to cooperate in Africa assistance

TOKYO, Dec. 12 Kyodo - Japan, China and South Korea agreed Friday to join hands in drawing up concrete plans for trilateral cooperation in assistance to Africa and to regularly exchange information on respective policies, as senior officials held their
first such trilateral working level talks in Tokyo.
Japan reiterated its call on China to improve the transparency of its aid to
Africa and to consider issues such as governance, sustainability of loans,
environment and other factors when giving such assistance. Meanwhile, China
emphasized that its aid to Africa should be seen as South-South assistance
among developing nations, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
The three nations also agreed to strengthen cooperation in helping to solve
issues in the African region, especially the instability and humanitarian
crisis in Sudan, worsening piracy in waters off Somalia and unrest in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, the official said.
Describing the talks as having ''made greater-than-expected achievements,'' the
official involved in the meeting said the three countries also exchanged
experiences and know-how in their respective hosting of cooperation forums with
African leaders.
Japan, which first launched the Tokyo International Conference on African
Development in 1993, is facing growing competition from China and South Korea
in maintaining influence in Africa through the provision of aid and investment.
Beijing and Seoul have in recent years aggressively expanded their financial
assistance to African nations in various forms and have also respectively
hosted African development conferences similar to TICAD.
The trilateral meeting, agreed to by the nations' leaders in a three-way summit
last year, was aimed at promoting dialogue, understanding and coordination
among the three countries in their Africa policies.
The three neighbors agreed to continue the trilateral dialogue by holding
meetings on an annual basis in principle, with China expected to hold the one
next year, followed by South Korea, the official said.
The results of Friday's meeting will be reported to the three nations' leaders
when they gather Saturday in Fukuoka Prefecture, southwestern Japan, for a
trilateral summit.
==Kyodo