Japan has granted Tunisia $100 million in aid to fight the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tunisia's state news agency TAP reported on Saturday, citing Japanese foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, who is attending a summit in the North African country.
TAP quoted Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Othman Jerandi as saying that Tunisia and Japan had inked two partnership agreements; the first provides for technical and financial cooperation and the financing of the Tunisian government's development projects and reform programs in various fields.
Tunisia will join the Japanese initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the second agreement. This is within the framework of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
Japan also pledged on Saturday $30 billion in aid for development in Africa, saying it wants to work more closely with the continent, with the rules-based international order under threat after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Addressing the Japan-Africa summit, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo would work to ensure grain shipments to Africa amid a global shortage.
"If we give up on a rules-based society and permit unilateral changes of the status quo by force, the impact of that will extend not only through Africa, but all the world," Kishida said by videolink after testing positive for COVID-19.
