Morocco leaves Japan's TICAD summit because of a Polisario delegation

The Moroccan delegation invited to attend the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) has left the meeting because of the Polisario. The host country, Japan, was unable to chase a Polisario delegation at the conference.

This comes as Japanese Foreign Minister promised his Moroccan counterpart last year to reconsider the participation of the Front at Maputo, describing it as a mistake.

However, Japan has once again disappointed Rabat. Tokyo has tolerated the presence of a Polisario delegation at the 7th edition of TICAD, hosted on the 5th, 6th and 7th of October at the Japanese capital.

Morocco blames the Japanese authorities for not taking into account «all the commitments it promised Morocco to fulfill, especially during the meeting that brought the two foreign ministers together in New York on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly», a diplomatic source told Yabiladi.

«The Moroccan delegation (led by Mohsine Jazouli) cannot tolerate Japan's hesitation», added the same source.

History repeating itself

Commenting on what happened at TICAD, Japan's Foreign Minister stated that «even if an entity, which declares itself as a 'country' and that Japan does not recognize, is sitting in this room, it does not mean that Japan recognizes it in any way implicitly or explicitly as a state».

Despite this statement, the host country could not impose its authority on the countries supporting the Polisario within the African Union, and which accepted the participation of the Front's representatives.

This shows that the Japanese diplomacy cannot defend its positions. On the other hand, its Chinese neighbor was able to shut all the African voices calling for the participation of the Polisario Front at the China-Africa summit.

At the TICAD meeting in August 2017 in Maputo, Mozambique, the Front was present, preventing Morocco from participating to the conference. In the aftermath of this incident, the Japanese foreign minister promised his Moroccan counterpart to make a change at the Tokyo summit.