African ministers and senior policymakers will be zipping across Asia for the next two weeks to attend a series of so-called “Africa+1 events” that began in Japan last weekend and continue in Indonesia early next week and then on to Beijing for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit.
Representatives from 47 African countries took part in the two-day ministerial gathering in Japan for the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TOCAD) that ended on Sunday.
The Tokyo meeting was ostensibly intended to prepare for the 9th TICAD summit that will take place in Yokohama next year, but the final communique seemed to be far more preoccupied with pushing back against China’s challenges to the international system.
The joint statement emphasized “the importance of respecting compliance with international law and promoting the rule of law” — diplomatic language that is often used by China’s rivals who accuse Beijing of undermining global governance norms.
Many of those who attended the TICAD event in Tokyo are now at the Indonesian resort island of Bali to take part in a three-day Indonesia-Africa Forum that starts on Sunday.
It’s uncertain how many African delegations will take part in the Indonesian forum given that it overlaps with the FOCAC senior officials meeting that begins in Beijing on Tuesday.
