The Moroccan delegation participating in a preparatory meeting for the Japan-Africa summit in Tokyo thwarted an Algerian maneuver aimed at imposing the Polisario. This act violated the sovereignty of the host country, which had not invited the separatist movement.
In the early 1980s, the Polisario Front's greatest fear was that Algeria might abandon it. Algeria, had come to believe that the Sahara conflict could not be resolved militarily and began to focus on diplomatic solutions to the regional dispute.