This is a curious development:
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin agreed Tuesday that the two countries should cooperate on reconstructing Iraq. They emphasized the importance of consorted international efforts as well as the involvement of the United Nations in the Iraq effort, Japanese officials said.Later Tuesday, Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and de Villepin agreed that Tokyo and Paris will cooperate in providing aid to Iraq in cultural, medical, sports and other fields. Aid projects include rebuilding Iraq's national museum, supporting Iraqi athletes hoping to compete in international meets and training Iraqi doctors in Egypt.
Especially as it comes on the heels of this Parisian endorsement, one day before:
France supports Japan's desire to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said here Monday, also urging North Korea to abandon its nuclear programme."For France, Japan is naturally cut out to become a member of the Security Council...," de Villepin said on his first visit to Japan since he took up the post of foreign minister in 2002. This would be a "reflection of the weight, the influence and responsibilities" that Japan holds internationally, he said.
Japan wants to join the elite Security Council, which groups China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia, arguing its hefty UN dues have earned it the right.
Japan deserves greater prominence and respect in world affairs; if the United Nations must remain the medium for that ascendance, so be it (for now). But considering France's exclusion from prime contracting for Iraqi reconstruction, Jacques Chirac would have every reason to send his foreign minister around to court whomever would be willing to cut the Gauls a subcontractor's bid or three. The French government also has quite a steep hill to climb in convincing Iraqis of its good intentions - if there are any - so public works projects through the association of a foreign presence already revered by Iraqis may be Chirac's best bet.