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6 THE JAPAN TIMES TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 (3)

Libya revolution day

Libya fetes 40th anniversary of Great AlFateh RevolutionAhmed O.O. ELHWATCHARGE D’AFFAIRES A.I., PEOPLE’S

BUREAU OF THE GREAT SOCIALIST

PEOPLE’S LIBYAN ARAB JAMAHIRIYA

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On this auspicious 40th anni-versary of the Great AlFatehRevolution of the Great Social-ist People’s Libyan ArabJamahiriya, itis an honor forme to be able tooffer you, dis-t i n g u i s h e dreaders, a chro-nological over-view of the de-velopments inbilateral relations betweenLibya and Japan. This ap-proach, I believe will showmore concrete facts of the bi-lateral discourse. In closing, Iwill report briefly on the re-cent events in my home coun-try vis-a-vis the internationalarena and discuss avenues ofcooperation that are mutuallybeneficial.

At the outset, let me takethis opportunity to extend onbehalf of our leader Col. Mo-ammar Gadhafi, the people ofLibya, myself and my col-leagues at the Libyan People’sBureau in Tokyo, our sincereheartfelt greetings to TheirImperial Majesties EmperorAkihito and Empress Michiko,the government and thefriendly people of Japan.

The Japan Times is alsoworthy of special acknowledg-ment for allowing our bureauover the years to share, asmentioned above, the latestdevelopments in bilateral dis-course between our twofriendly nations and people, aswell as about my country. Iwould also like to congratulateon this happy occasion Libyannationals residing in Japanand invite you all to celebratewith Libyans throughout theworld our Revolution Day ofthe Great Sept. 1 AlFateh Rev-olution.Chronological overview

On the political-diplomaticlevel, Libya-Japan relationshave been improving steadilyover the last decade. In April2000, the secretary of economy

and trade (a member of theCabinet), who also happens tobe chairperson of the Libya-Japan Friendship Associa-tion, was invited to Tokyo bythe Japanese government,during which time he met theforeign minister. The signifi-cance of this visit of the 10-member delegation was that itwas the first Cabinet-level vis-it on the part of Libya since1985.

The Japanese governmentused this opportunity to dis-patch the senior vice ministerfor foreign affairs in Septem-ber 2000 as a way to resume‘‘high-level political dialogueto invigorate relations be-tween Japan and Libya.’’ In-deed, this was the first visit ofa Japanese government rep-resentative at the ministerialor vice ministerial level. Thesenior vice minister had ex-tensive talks with the secre-tary of the General People’sCommittee for Foreign Liai-son and International Cooper-ation, as well as with the for-mer secretary of economy andtrade on bilateral issues, in-cluding economic affairs anddevelopment issues in Africa.

It should be mentioned thatseveral influential Japanesedignitaries who had visitedLibya prior to this, namely,Zentaro Kosaka (1974), ToshioKimura (1979), Yoshio Saku-rachi (1985) and Koji Kakiza-wa (1998 and 1999), had allserved as foreign ministersbefore their trips to Libya. Inaddition, Kakizawa, as amember of the House of Rep-resentatives, visited Libya inApril 1986, much to the delightof the Japanese media. Withthe exception of the Kosakamission, the other delegationchiefs all traveled to Libyawith the added prestige of be-ing chairpersons of the Japan-Libya Friendship Association.

The significance of thesevisits was that they played amajor role in highlighting the

economic and political impor-tance of Libya to Japan. Thatis to say, the Kimura entou-rage in 1979 was made up of 35political, business and mediarepresentatives. As for theSakurachi visit of 1985, an im-pressive 57-member delega-tion comprising representa-tives of the three differentJapanese political parties,business as well as 10 mediapersonalities arrived in Libyajust in time to celebrate withthe Libyan people the 16th an-niversary of the Great AlFa-teh Revolution.

The 1998 and 1999 trips ofKakizawa with an entourageof 18 and 14 members, respec-tively, mainly made up ofbusiness leaders, sought topromote and enhance econom-ic opportunities in Libya. Theimportance attached to thesemissions by Libya is clearlyevident in the hospitality be-stowed on them by their meet-ing with Col. Gadhafi. The sub-sequent wide media coveragein Japan paid tribute to thisfact.

On the Libyan side,Cabinet-level visitsdate back to 1980,when the secretary

of planning came to Japan ashead of the Libya-JapanFriendship Association andhost of a Libyan cultural exhi-bition in Tokyo. In 1983, thesecretary of the General Peo-ple’s Congress (head of thelegislative branch) also paid avisit to Japan. This was fol-lowed by a visit in April 1985 bythe secretary of the GeneralPeople’s Committee for HeavyIndustry. From the foreign af-fairs portfolio, the first visit ofthe secretary of the GeneralPeople’s Committee for For-eign Liaison and InternationalCooperation, Dr. Ali Al-Trieki,as an official guest of the Japa-nese government, took placein August 1985. Another visitduring October was that of the

secretary of the Basic Peo-ple’s Congresses of the Secre-tariat of the General People’sCongress (member of the leg-islative branch).

In October 1998, Libya par-ticipated in the second TokyoInternational Conference forAfrican Development (TICADII). The Libyan representa-tive was the assistant secre-tary of the General People’sCommittee for Foreign Liai-son and International Cooper-ation. This invitation also pre-sented Japan with an opportu-nity to enhance bilateralrelations.

H.E. Col. Saadi MoammarGadhafi visited Japan aschairman of the Libyan Foot-ball Federation. Col. Saadicarried a letter addressed tothe prime minister from theLibyan leader, and met theminister of economy, tradeand industry as well as the se-nior vice minister for foreignaffairs. This visit in June 2001laid the groundwork for fur-ther avenues of cooperation. Ayear later, Col. Saadi visitedagain to attend the FIFAWorld Cup 2002.

With this positive develop-ment, a delegation of 17 ener-gy industry executives subse-

quently embarked on a mis-sion to Libya the followingmonth and held fruitful discus-sions with the National Oil Co.(NOC) on cooperation in theenergy sector. In addition, onthe occasion of the eighth In-ternational Energy Forum inSeptember 2002 in Japan, thechairperson of the NOC, who isalso chairperson of the Libya-Japan Friendship Associa-tion, held important meetingswith many senior officials inTokyo.

In September 2003, the sec-retary of International Coop-eration of the General Peo-ple’s Committee for ForeignLiaison and International Co-operation represented Libyaat TICAD III, giving both sidesa further occasion to maintainthe positive rapport over thecourse of this exchange of se-nior-level visits between thetwo countries. Indeed, the sec-retary returned again to takepart in an investment forumhosted by the Japan Coopera-tion Center for the MiddleEast (JCCME). The secretarywas kept busy as he met mostof the trade organizationssuch as the Japan ExternalT r a d e O r g a n i z a t i o n(JETRO), Japan BusinessFederation (Nippon Keidan-ren) as well as other govern-ment officials.

During June 2004, seniorvice minister for foreign af-fairs, Ichiro Aizawa, as spe-cial envoy of the prime minis-ter, set a record by becomingthe first serving member ofthe Cabinet at a ministeriallevel and vice ministerial lev-el to meet Col. Gadhafi. Thismeeting was front-page newsin most major Japanese andLibyan media outlets.

The Web site of the Ministryof Foreign Affairs of Japanproudly documents the hospi-tality granted the special en-voy. The meeting with Col. Ga-dhafi lasted over two hourswhile the one with the secre-

tary of the General People’sCommittee for Foreign Liai-son and International Cooper-ation lasted over five hours.The special envoy also met thesecretary of the General Peo-ple’s Congress.

Discussions during themeetings touched on all areasof bilateral interest. The Liby-an side urged Japan to partici-pate in the economic develop-ment of Libya in such sectorsas oil and gas, industrializa-tion of the vast national land,the Great Man-Made Riverproject, desalination of sea-water, electric power genera-tion as well as deepen culturalexchange through providingscholarships for students tostudy in Japan.

Incidentally, this trip hap-pened during the birthday ofthe special envoy and in con-gratulation, Col. Gadhafi senthim a bouquet of flowers. InJapan, the environment min-ister, Yuriko Koike, invitedher Libyan counterpart to at-tend the first Japan-Arab En-vironment Ministers Seminarin March 2004. The aim was toexpand cooperation betweenJapan and Arab countries inthe field of environmental con-servation.

At the end of the same year,the parliamentary vice minis-ter for foreign affairs visitedLibya to maintain the ex-change between senior mem-bers of the two countries. InMarch 2005, former ForeignMinister Kakizawa, in his ca-pacity as chairperson of thefriendship association, led adelegation of energy companyexecutives and held meetingswith many prominent Libyanpersonalities, including H.E.Dr. Eng. Saif Al-Islam Moam-mar Gadhafi, president of theGadhafi Foundation for De-velopment as well as head ofthe NOC.

One month later, with Lib-ya’s second participation in aglobal expo, under the patron-

age of the foundation, Dr. Eng.Saif Al-Islam visited Japan asa guest of honor of Aichi Expo2005 to attend the Libya Na-tional Day in Nagoya on April7.

Indeed, the welcome grant-ed Dr. Eng. Saif Al-Islam dur-ing this six-day visit was over-whelming. Prime MinisterJunichiro Koizumi, as well asother influential members ofthe Cabinet, former premiers,the Lower House Speaker andDiet members from differentpolitical parties all engaged indirect talks with Dr. Eng. SaifAl-Islam. Meetings also tookplace with executives of JBIC,JCCME, JETRO, industrialand energy companies, andthe Agency for Natural Re-sources and Energy.

During these meet-ings, the topics dis-cussed covered arange of interests

such as gaining expertise foradministrative reform andprovision of vocational andtechnical know-how; execut-ing joint development projectsin Africa; cooperation in theenergy sector through jointventures for the exploration,development and rehabilita-tion of oil fields; joint solar-en-ergy research; completion ofa legal framework to enter in-to bilateral agreements; cre-ation of a joint businessmen’scouncil by linking chambers ofcommerce; cooperation in thefield of information technolo-gy; encouragement of invest-ments; establishment of jointprojects in various industrialfields; and provision of post-graduate fellowships and ad-vance training for Libyan na-tionals.

Dr. Eng. Saif Al-Islam alsogave a lecture organized bythe United Nations Universitywith the support of the ForeignMinistry and the Institute forDisarmament and PeaceStudies of Meiji University, on

the theme of ‘‘Libya in the 21stCentury.’’ This event waswarmly received because ofDr. Eng. Saif Al-Islam’s can-dor in explaining Libya’s pointof view. In addition, an art ex-hibition with the support of theJapan Foundation depictingLibya’s rich cultural heritage,titled ‘‘The Desert is Not Si-lent,’’ was inaugurated in To-kyo by Dr. Eng. Saif Al-Islamwith the royal presence ofPrince Tomohito of Mikasa, aswell as parliamentarians, thediplomatic corps and Japa-nese guests.

Equally, the Libya NationalDay that featured a folkloretroupe in Nagoya in honor ofDr. Eng. Saif Al-Islam waswell attended, thanks in partto the hospitality of the mayorof the city of Tahara. Gov. Ma-saaki Kanda of Aichi Prefec-ture also kindly hosted the Ai-chi Welcome Night as part ofthe celebration. The LibyanPavilion, with the theme‘‘Where Yellow and Blue isGreen,’’ portrayed the rich di-verse desert culture. At theend of the six-month expo, ithad managed to draw morethan 2 million visitors.

The media coverage in Ja-pan and Libya was extensive.Close to 20 minutes of live tele-vision interviews were con-ducted on prime-time popularnews networks, which wasbeamed into Japanese homesto directly voice Libya’s pointof view. All major Japanesenewspapers allocated space todiscuss the positive impact ofthe visit. Libyan televisionand newspapers lauded thistimely visit, and congratulat-ed both sides on its success.

In November 2005, the Ja-pan-AU ParliamentaryFriendship League visitedLibya headed by Koji Omi,former minister of state forscience and technology policy,and founder of the Science andTechnology Forum (STS Fo-rum). Omi held a number ofimportant meetings with se-nior Libyan officials related toscience and technology policy.

In April the following year,CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

Libyan leader Col. MoammarGadhafi

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Libya revolution day

40th anniversary of the Great AlFateh RevolutionCONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

the friendship association, co-led by former foreign minis-ters Kakizawa and NobutakaMachimura, organized an en-ergy mission of senior energyexecutives. They had a num-ber of direct talks, includingwith the secretary of the Gen-eral People’s Committee andthe NOC. The association alsoset up a booth at the 35th Tripo-li International Fair throughwhich several Japanese com-panies participated and evenhosted some Japanese cultur-al events as part of their activ-ities.

Three months later, thechairperson of theNOC, Dr. Shokri Gha-nem (former secre-

tary of the General People’sCommittee) visited Japan atthe invitation of the friendshipassociation. During his stay,he met the ministers of foreignaffairs; economy, trade andindustry; environment; andscience and technology. Thechairperson also held exten-sive talks with senior execu-tives of energy, environment,economy, industry and thetrade sector.

During August 2006, IwaoMatsuda, minister of state forscience and technology, paidan official visit to Libya as aspecial envoy of the primeminister. Matsuda was thefirst serving minister of Japanto meet Col. Gadhafi. He alsoengaged in important talkswith several key senior offi-cials, including the secretaryof the General People’s Com-mittee for Manpower, Train-ing and Employment.

Following the visit of thespecial envoy to Libya, thesecretary of the General Peo-ple’s Committee forManpower, Training and Em-ployment was invited to Japanto participate in the STS Fo-rum. During this visit, he hadmeetings with a number ofCabinet members and busi-ness leaders.

At the end of 2006, YurikoKoike headed for Libya in hercapacity as national securityadviser and based on an offi-cial invitation for direct talkswith her counterpart Dr. Mu-tassim Moammar Gadhafi.She also had an opportunity toexchange views with senior of-ficials during her two-day vis-it.

2007 saw three importantvisits to Libya. The first was arepeat by Diet member Ma-tsuda. The visit was to followup areas of interest in scienceand technology that the twosides agreed to continue con-sultations on.

The second visit was by Ta-keshi Iwaya, senior vice min-ister for foreign affairs. Thisvisit of June 2007 was used toinvite Libyan officials to at-tend TICAD IV. During his so-journ in Libya, Iwaya heldmeetings with the secretary ofthe General People’s Commit-tee, the secretary of the Gen-eral People’s Committee forForeign Liaison and Interna-tional Cooperation, and otherofficials. Iwaya also met sev-eral African leaders partici-pating in the summit of theCommunity of Sahel-SaharanStates (CEN-SAD).

The third visit was that ofKoji Kakizawa of the friend-ship association with an entou-rage of 20 business leaders.During their stay, the wel-come extended to having di-rect talks with the secretariesof the General People’s Com-mittee for Manpower, Train-ing and Employment; Econo-my; Electricity, Gas andWater Resources; Transpor-tation and Communication;the NOC; as well as with theassistant secretary of the Gen-eral People’s Committee forForeign Liaison and Interna-tional Cooperation.

From Libya, the general di-rector of the Libyan ForeignInvestment Board attendedthe JCCME Investment Pro-motion Forum in March 2007.This annual event draws eco-nomic, political and businessleaders from all over the Mid-dle East.

At the beginning of 2008, theassistant secretary of the Gen-eral People’s Committee forForeign Liaison and Interna-tional Cooperation visited Ja-pan as a special envoy of Col.Gadhafi and delivered a letterto Prime Minister Yasuo Fu-kuda. During this visit, the as-sistant secretary had frankdiscussions with 16 key offi-cials, including the minister offoreign affairs, two formerprime ministers, former for-eign ministers, a former de-fense minister and others.

During the same year, thesecretary for Asian affairs ofthe General People’s Commit-

tee for Foreign Liaison and In-ternational Cooperation visit-ed Japan to participate in TI-CAD IV. On the sidelines ofthis meeting, the secretarymet the senior vice ministerfor foreign affairs and dis-cussed possible avenues of co-operation that can assist Afri-ca. The following year, thesecretary was invited for fur-ther discussions during whichhe met the minister of foreignaffairs as well as a number offormer Cabinet members.

In October 2008, the secre-tary of the General People’sCommittee for Education wasinvited to participate in theSTS Forum. The secretary al-so attended the first Japan-Af-rica Science and TechnologyMinisters’ Meeting. In addi-tion, the secretary held bilat-eral meetings with the minis-ter of state for science andtechnology, and the ministerof education, culture, sports,science and technology. Thediscussions focused mainly onhow Libya can learn from theJapanese education systemand the possibility of increas-ing scholarships for Libyanstudents.

In December 2008, formerMinister of State for Scienceand Technology Matsuda wasinvited to Libya by the Nation-al Economic DevelopmentBoard (NEDB) and invited tobecome one of the five interna-tional advisers. This July, Ma-tsuda traveled to Libya to par-ticipate in the board meetingof this five-member interna-tional consultative body. TheNEDB is an influential organi-zation that reports directly tothe secretary of the GeneralPeople’s Committee. One of itsfocuses is to offer practical ini-tiatives that concentrate oncapacity building of the younggeneration in Libya. This is allpart of the strategy of the lead-ership to fully utilize and allowthe youth to more directly con-tribute in the further develop-ment of Libya.Developments in Libya

Libya in the last decade hasexperienced a remarkabletransformation that is best de-scribed as being multilayeredand proactive. On the econom-ic front, Libya has beenblessed with natural resourc-es that the leadership has putto good use. Wide-ranging in-frastructure projects(2008-2011) that include hous-

ing, medical centers, educa-tional institutions, road net-works, port and harbor facili-ties, the Great Man-made Riv-er project (for drinking andagrarian purposes), modernoffice and hospitality com-plexes, etc., are but a few ofthe gigantic projects that areto directly benefit the Libyanpeople.

On the capacity-buildinglevel, the universal educationpolicy undertaken at the onsetof the AlFateh Revolution re-sulted in the establishment ofa full educational structure.Almost every town in Libyahosts a university and othervocational institutions. Thereare also plans to increase thesignificance of the tourismsector as a tool of interculturalcommunication, which bringsabout further cultural under-standing and tolerance, espe-cially as Libya is home to nu-merous UNESCO World Heri-tage sites comprisingprehistoric, Greek, Roman,Phoenician and Islamic antiq-uities. The latest of suchschemes has been inaugurat-ed by Dr. Eng. Saif Al-Islamwith the Cyrene Declaration,which will become the world’sfirst regional-scale conserva-tion and development projectdedicated to responding to thechallenges and opportunitiesfor sustainable developmentin the Green Mountain region.

On the African continent,Col. Gadhafi has been an unre-lenting champion of Africanemancipation. This is clear inthe support from the evolutionof the Organization of AfricaUnity (OAU) into the AfricanUnion (AU) through the SirteDeclaration of Sept. 9, 1999.Today, the AU is on the vergeof evolving into the UnitedStates of Africa. The estab-lishment of CEN-SAD in 1998from a meeting in Tripoli offive like-minded African lead-ers is another concrete indica-tion of Libya’s sponsorship.Now CEN-SAD has developedinto an organization compris-ing 28 states, second in size on-ly to the AU.

On the global front, Libya isleading by example as it tookperhaps the most courageousdecision in 2003 to unilaterallyand voluntarily give up its nu-clear and WMD program, set-ting an example for others tofollow, and diverting thesefunds into peaceful economic

and social development pro-jects for a more concrete con-centration on peace and devel-opment.

In recognition of this auda-cious move, many world lead-ers have visited Libya. In factsome reports indicate that in2007 and 2008 there were morethan 72 and 55 such high-levelvisits, respectively.

Indeed, on the domesticfront, this year is no different.In fact summit diplomacy willperhaps be more intense thanboth years put together. InJune, Libya hosted the sum-mit of CEN-SAD. In July, Lib-ya hosted the AU summit,which also included guest non-African leaders, and this Au-gust, an extraordinary sum-mit for the Resolution of Con-flicts in Africa has been held.This is because Col. Gadhafi isthe AU chairperson. More-over, it won’t be a surprise ifmany leaders from around theworld are in Libya to join incelebrating the 40th anniver-sary of the revolution.

Libya is a nonperma-nent member of theU.N. Security Council.The president of the

United Nations General As-sembly of the 64th Session,starting Sept. 15, will be Dr.Ali Al-Trieki of Libya. Nextyear, Libya will host the ArabLeague summit of the 22 Arabcountries.

This couple of years have al-so seen Col. Gadhafi beinghosted in European capitalssuch as Brussels, Paris, Mos-cow, Kiev, Minsk, Rome, Ma-drid, etc., in addition to nu-merous African and Arab cap-itals. Just recently, he wasinvited to attend the G-8 sum-mit in L’Aquila, Italy, that had27 international leaders pre-sent.Relations: the way forward

In the chronological over-view of bilateral relations, Ihave shed light on the level ofthe discourse through the re-ciprocal visits of officials onboth sides. In the latter part onthe developments in Libya,the aim was to show Libya’sstanding on a global level. Thereason is plain. The funda-mentals for a dramatic en-hancement of bilateral rela-tions have existed for manyyears between Libya and Ja-pan. The opportunities for thetwo sides are infinite. From

Libya, we have noticed that afair number of Cabinet-levelofficials have visited Japan.The same cannot be said in re-turn. But what is important, isthat the connections exist andmust be utilized for mutualbenefit.

If we look back at the visitsby energy officials of Japan toLibya, we notice a remarkablesuccess in comparison with oth-er industry sectors. Perhapsonly the energy sector of Japanhas managed to get a footholdin the vast lucrative investmentprojects in Libya due to theirperseverance. This is especial-ly clear when we compare thenationalities of companies par-ticipating in many other pro-jects. Some are consideredeven latecomers if we considerthe long diplomatic relation wehave with Japan.

Of course, we acknowledgethat in the past few years,there have been some initia-tives with regards to capacitybuilding. Libyans have bene-fited from medium-termtraining programs, othershave been granted postgradu-ate study opportunities here inJapan. The only drawback iswhen a comparison is made ofother bilateral relations.

Business leaders of manycountries that have succeededin participating in Libya’scountless developmental in-frastructure projects haveskillfully called on their politi-cal leaders to lobby on theirbehalf. This has resulted inpartnerships of mutual confi-dence between Libya andthose countries, creating a

win-win situation for all. Ja-pan can take advantage of thismomentum of steady diplo-macy. However, the exchang-es of visits at Cabinet level re-main vital and crucial to jumpstart the process.

Indeed, this June, formerDefense Minister Yuriko Koi-ke became the new chairper-son of the friendship associa-tion. Koike is perhaps the mostknowledgeable politician onArab issues, with the experi-ence and ability to cultivatethe relationship even further.The expertise of the associa-tion and its network of friendsis also an added bonus that canprovide backbone support.This August saw the appoint-

ment of a new ambassador ofJapan to Libya, Wataru Nishi-gahiro. We are sure that hisexcellent diplomatic abilitiesare of a high order and willlead the relationship to newheights. In tandem, the Liby-an People’s Bureau in Japan isready to provide full supportto meet this end.

In closing, I once again ex-tend my congratulations to thetwo distinguished personali-ties on their appointments,and express on my behalf andmy colleagues at the LibyanPeople’s Bureau in Tokyo, myheartfelt congratulations onthe 40th anniversary of theGreat Sept. 1 AlFateh Revolu-tion to all.

Association works to foster friendshipYuriko KoikeCHAIRPERSON, JAPAN-LIBYA FRIENDSHIP

ASSOCIATION

FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER

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On the occasion of the 40thanniversary ofthe AlFatehRevolution, aschairperson oftheJapan-LibyaFriendshipAssociation, Iwould like toexpress my heartfeltcongratulations to theleadership and people of Libya.

Indeed, my personalexperience with Libya dates

back to the late 1970s when Ihad the opportunity tointerview Col. MoammarGadhafi. Since then, I havetraveled to Libya (December2006) as national securityadviser and met with mycounterpart, Dr. MutassimGadhafi. As environmentminister, I also met Dr. Eng.Seif Al-Islam Gadhafi (April2005) in Japan as well asvarious Libyan dignitaries,including the former primeminister.

The Japan-Libya FriendshipAssociation has vigorouslyworked to foster therelationship between our twocountries, and as the new

chairperson from June 24 thisyear, I intend to continue thisimportant task, in my personaland professional capacities.Having lived in the Arab worldand traveled to most Arabcountries, I believe I can makean important and distinctivecontribution.

In fact, before the end of thisyear, I hope to head an officialeconomic and politicaldelegation to Libya toexchange views with seniorLibyan officials on how best tomove forward. I am confidentthat the Libyan People’sBureau in Tokyo will maintainits support of our efforts as itdid with my predecessors.