TUNIS -- The 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD8), held in Tunisia, North Africa, to discuss Japan-led support for African development, concluded Sunday with the adoption of the Tunis Declaration. With China in mind, the declaration confirms the importance of financing development in compliance with international standards.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who had contracted the novel coronavirus and so joined online, stressed at the joint press conference following the closing ceremony the urgent need to address unfair and opaque financing, and said a strong and sustainable Africa would be realized. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi participated in the conference's meetings in person in Tunis.
The declaration sets forth a policy of promoting sound development finance that complies with international rules and standards for infrastructure development in Africa. The aim is to counter China's efforts to expand its influence through "debt traps," in which loans that exceed a partner country's ability to repay are used to keep a country in debt.
