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Morocco has withdrawn from the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Japan in protest of the participation of the Polisario Front.
The official Moroccan news agency, citing an unnamed source, said members of the Polisario delegation had obtained African Union accreditation cards to attend the meeting.
The agency said the Moroccan delegation had walked out of the meeting in protest of their participation.
Japan does not recognize Polisario Front as a state.
“Even if a group which claims itself as a state which Japan does not recognize was sitting in this room, this fact does not mean that Japan, in any way, implicitly or explicitly recognize it as a state,” Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono told the meeting.
Opened in Tokyo on Friday, the two-day ministerial meeting was co-organized by the Japanese government in cooperation with the UN, UN Development Program (UNDP), the World Bank, and the African Union Commission (AUC).
Western Sahara – a large territory in southern Morocco – has been the subject of dispute between Rabat and the Polisario Front for more than four decades.
After years of conflict, the two parties signed a UN-backed cease-fire in 1991.
The Polisario, meanwhile, has long called for a popular referendum in Western Sahara to decide the region’s political fate.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Tokyo on Saturday for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials ahead of his fourth visit to North Korea for decentralization talks with its leader Kim Jong Un.Despite Kim's pledge to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, Japan, Washington's key ally in Asia, still considers North Korea to be a "dire threat," and is pushing ahead with plans to bolster its ballistic missile defenses with Aegis Ashore batteries that can target warheads in space.Video: Pompeo arrives in Tokyo ahead of North Korea visitSpeaking to a pool reporter en route to Tokyo, Pompeo said his aim in Pyongyang was "to make sure we understand what each side is truly trying to achieve." He also said he hoped to be able to agree a "general date and location" for a second summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un following their first meeting in Singapore in June.Pompeo's last visit to North Korea failed to make progress with Pyongyang denouncing him for making "gangster-like demands."Recently, he angered North Korea by insisting that international sanctions must remain in place until it gives up its nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, he said there was unanimous support for this at last week's U.N. General Assembly, even if Russia and China "had some ideas about how we might begin to think about a time when it would be appropriate to reduce them."
Pompeo in Tokyo for talks ahead of Pyongyang visit
Japan has decided not to take part in an international fleet review in South Korea next week after Seoul effectively asked Tokyo not to fly its "Rising Sun" flag on a warship, Japan's defence minister said on Friday, the latest spat between the two sides.Japan's relations with both South and North Korea have long been strained by lingering resentment over its 1910-45 colonisation of Korea, territorial rows and the issue of Korean girls and women forced to work in Japan's wartime brothels.Japan's decision comes after South Korea this week asked participating countries not to fly flags at the bow or at the stern of their vessels, Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters."When it comes to the Maritime Self-Defence Force ensign, domestic laws and regulations stipulate that it must be hoisted at the stern," Iwaya said. "Regrettably, we have reached a decision that we cannot help forgoing the participation."Many people in both Koreas see the red-and-white flag as a symbol of Japan's past military aggression and its colonisation."The 'Rising Sun' flag is a war-crime flag that the 20th-century Japanese imperialists used when executing their barbaric invasions into our nation and other Asian nations," North Korea's state-controlled Uriminjokkiri website said."Planning to enter flying the 'Rising Sun' flag is an unbearable insult and ridicule to our people."In South Korea, articles about the controversy are among the most widely read on social media, with the president's office receiving 250 petitions for the Japanese ship to be barred.On Friday, the South Korean Navy said Japanese naval ships flew the ensign when they participated in fleet reviews in 1998 and 2008, but it had asked all ships at this year's event to display national flags and the South Korean flag.The "Rising Sun" ensign, used by the Japanese Imperial Navy in campaigns around Asia and the Pacific before and during World War Two, was adopted by the Maritime Self-Defence Force in 1954.Variations of the flag are used by the Ground Self-Defence Force and on the fatigues of some Japanese sailors, but some South Koreans liken it to Nazi symbols such as the swastika.Asia stocks slip as NAFTA lift fades; oil near 4-year highsPrior to Iwaya's comment, Japan's top-ranking uniformed officer had signalled he was putting his foot down on the issue."Hoisting of the Maritime Self-Defence Force ensign is required by law," Katsutoshi Kawano, the chief of staff of the Self Defence Forces, told reporters on Thursday."Members take pride in the ensign, and we will never go there with the flag unhoisted."South Korea's foreign ministry had "conveyed our stance that the Japanese side should fully consider the Rising Sun flag's emotional connotation to our people," Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said.Japan was a key player in U.S.-led efforts to isolate and punish North Korea over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.Ties between the United States and North Korea have warmed since a summit in Singapore in June. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday he was optimistic a visit to Pyongyang this weekend would bring progress towards North Korea's denuclearisation.Japan and South Korea often trade barbs over disputed islands known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in Korea.Announcing Japan's decision not to participate in the fleet review, Iwaya said that defence cooperation between Tokyo and Seoul remains extremely important.Japanese envoy ‘mesmerized’ by Turkey’s Antalya
Japan to skip naval event after S.Korea protests over 'Rising Sun' flag