August 25, 2024 – 1:00 PM – World
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The Polisario Front was not invited to the ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Japan. This conference, like other similar meetings, is only open to UN member states. However, Polisario members traveled to Japan on Algerian diplomatic passports and tried to attend the preparatory meeting.
On Friday, some Polisario Front members managed to enter the meeting room pretending to be part of the Algerian delegation. One of them even placed a sign reading “Sahrawi Republic” on the table between the Zambian and Zimbabwean delegations. This sign is different from the official nameplates that Japan provided to the invited UN member states.
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A senior Japanese official was quick to respond to the move, stressing that the Polisario’s presence “does not mean recognition in any way.” Japan does not recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and has always expressed support for Morocco.
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This is not the first time that the Polisario Front has tried to interfere in the TICAD meeting. In 2018, a similar incident occurred during the preparatory meeting for the seventh edition of TICAD. At that time, the Japanese Foreign Ministry stated that Japan does not recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a state, and assured Morocco that the existence of such an entity does not constitute implicit or explicit recognition.