Dispatch of a Political Affairs Officer to the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA)

June 18, 1999

In response to a request from the United Nations, the Government of Japan decided on June 18 (Fri.) to dispatch Mr. Koichiro Tanaka, a specialist on the Middle Eastern region (currently a research fellow at the Middle East Institute of Japan), to Pakistan as a political affairs officer of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA). Mr. Tanaka will be employed as an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and then dispatched to the UNSMA interim headquarters in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 28 (Mon.).
Based on resolutions of the UN General Assembly concerning the situation in Afghanistan, the UNSMA mediates between the factions in conflict to bring about peace in the country. The organization at present includes Mr. Andrew Tesoriere, acting head (from UK; the representative position is vacant), two political affairs officers (France and Russia), and four military advisors (Ireland, China, Malaysia and Jordan).
Recognizing that achieving peace in Afghanistan will contribute to the peace and stability as well as to the economic prosperity not only of that country but of the whole region, Japan has been proactively supplementing and assisting UN peace efforts in Afghanistan. Japan also dispatched Mr. Hiroshi Takahashi (currently counsellor at the Embassy of Japan in Uzbekistan) to the UNSMA from October 1996 to June 1998.

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