Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida held talks with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on April 30, on the first leg of a weeklong tour of Africa. The trip comes as the Japanese government looks to strengthen ties with the global south, ahead of hosting the annual G7 conference in Hiroshima this month.
While in Cairo, Kishida addressed the Arab League—an influential confederation of Arab-majority countries—on the importance of strengthening the rules-based international order, invoking Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an example of deteriorating geopolitical norms.
Kishida also pledged additional humanitarian aid and economic support for the region, vowing to help resolve the ongoing crisis in Sudan.
This approach by the Japanese PM highlights a growing concern that the developing world is turning away from the US and its allies, and looking toward China and Russia for economic and diplomatic support.
Chinese president Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials “have been going all over Africa and Latin America,” Kishida has told aides, according to a report by Nikkei Asia. “At this rate, we’ll lose to them.”
Now, with the G7 countries poised to issue their strongest condemnation of the Russian invasion later this month, Japan sees the support of neutral parties in the developing world as crucial to isolating Russia on the international stage.
This strategy seems to be working: Just two weeks before Kishida’s visit to Cairo, Egypt canceled plans to manufacture rockets for the Russian army and decided to supply Ukraine with ammunition instead.
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