The Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development was a departure from earlier editions of it. Japan, which is changing tack as a competitor to China in Africa, held back from publicising the number of heads of state present to prevent any comparisons with other such forums and made no further commitments on Overseas Development Assistance. The accent, instead, was on increasing Japanese private sector engagement

The results of the European Parliament elections, held late last month, served as an eye-opener for individual member states, such as Germany. A former ambassador to Germany offers an analysis of the leadership changes afoot, shifting coalitions – and also the prospect of stability amidst all the flux

India and Japan, two countries wanting to enhance the quality of their engagement in Africa’s development, have historically taken fundamentally different approaches to the task. But now, both are being guided by geoeconomic imperatives in aligning their strategy in the region— and the Asia Africa Growth Corridor offers many opportunities for synergy at the B2B level