The African Diplomatic Corps (ADC) held its monthly meeting on November 20, 2009, at the JICA Global Plaza in Hiroo, Tokyo. The meeting was hosted by H.E. Mr. Steven K. WONDU, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Sudan to Japan and chaired by the Dean of the ADC, H.E. Mr. Jean-Christian OBAME, Ambassador of Gabon to Japan.

In his welcome address, Ambassador Wondu indicated how pleased and honoured he was to host the meeting and wished successful deliberations.

The Dean, on behalf of the ADC group thanked the host for his hospitality and for the excellent arrangements made for the meeting.

Turning to the agenda of the day, several items were considered, including the evaluation report of the Tokyo Africa Club (TAC) meeting held on October 26 at MOFA on the TICAD IV follow-up and the way forward. The report made by the Chairperson of the ADC TICAD IV Committee, once again, highlighted the positive outcome of the TAC meeting, which was attended by the Foreign Affairs Minister, H.E. Mr. Katsuya Okada, who reiterated the assurances that the Government of Japan would implement, “without fail”, the commitments made at the 4th Tokyo International Conference on African Development - TICAD IV - held in Yokohama, in May 2008. The Dean subsequently informed the plenary of the letters sent to both Minister Okada and to the AU Commission in this respect.

As far as the TICAD IV follow-up process is concerned, the report indicated the steps to be implemented up to the second Ministerial meeting tentatively scheduled for May 2010 in Africa. In the meantime, the TICAD IV secretariat will produce a draft report to be issued in February 2010. This draft report will be reviewed by the ADC before its presentation to the TICAD IV Joint-Monitoring Committee in March 2010.

On other issues on the Agenda, the ADC group set up several committees:

-    The ADC 2010  Africa Day Symposium, which will be chaired by the Ambassador of Tunisia;
-    The ADC 2010 Africa Day Reception, which will chaired by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco ;
-    The ADC Trade and Investment Committee, which will be chaired by the Ambassador of South Africa; and
-    The ADC Science and Technology Committee, which will be chaired by the Ambassador of Uganda.

It was agreed that all these committees will present at the next ADC monthly, their respective programmes of activities for the months to come.

The last item on the agenda was the review of the ADC rules and proceedings. The Dean circulated a draft proposal, which will be considered for adoption at the next ADC meeting.

Finally on others matters, a preliminary report on the synergy between TICAD and AU/NEPAD was presented to the plenary by an ad hoc Committee, co-chaired by the Ambassadors of Zimbabwe and South Africa.  Given the importance of the issues involved, it was decided that the ad hoc Committee will pursue its discussions and present a final report at the next monthly meeting.

The ADC agreed to hold its next meeting, to be hosted by the Embassy of Tunisia, in the second part of December 2009.