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African Diplomatic Corps Pays Courtesy Call on Prime Minister Tuesday, June 28, 2005 JAPANESE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi received a courtesy call from the African Diplomatic Corps at the Prime Minister's Official Residence and held a meeting. This meeting was held to convey to the African countries the contribution measures for Africa under consideration upon attending the G8 Summit Meeting. The meeting was attended by ambassadors and acting ambassadors of 33 countries out of 34 African embassies in Japan. At the beginning of the meeting, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which currently holds the Chairmanship of the African Union (AU), presented Prime Minister Koizumi with an ethnic garment of Nigeria. Prime Minister Koizumi delivered an address while dressed in the ethnic garment presented to him in which he stated, "We are engaging in our efforts under the basic understanding that there will be no stability and prosperity in the world in the 21st century unless the problems of Africa are resolved. Taking this meeting as an opportunity, Japan will work even harder in providing assistance to Africa." Prime Minister Koizumi also announced that Japan will double the amount of official development assistance (ODA) to Africa over the next three-year period and will provide support for cooperation that aims to extend a total of 5 billion dollars over the next five year-period based on the "Health and Development" Initiative. Prime Minister Koizumi also noted, "With the support of the African countries, I wish that the United Nations Security Council will be successfully reformed." He also expressed his wish that development will be realized under the ownership of each African country. Lastly, the Ambassador of the Republic of Tunisia, who was serving as the Dean of the African Diplomatic Corps, expressed his gratitude saying that, "I am grateful that Japan is attaching importance to Africa."