Relations between Angola and China are steaming ahead, despite the wishful thinking of some Western diplomats. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Luanda on 23 June and signed an agreement for...

An experienced diplomat, Wirajuda is well-known in regional politics. His country's membership in several multilateral organizations frequently takes him into the African orbit. Wirajuda visited Kenya from 19-20 June. After meeting...

The sixty-year-old from Mangalore is revered in business circles for transforming a small lender, ICICI Bank, into a dynamic private enterprise. He joined ICICI in 1971, working in project finance and...

A specialist in the Middle East and North Africa, Zhai is responsible for China's West Asian and African relations. The Hebei native joined the Foreign Ministry after finishing university and...

The CADF has passed its first birthday. Announced to much fanfare at the 2006 China-Africa summit, it was formally established in June 2007 by the China Development Bank. The 50-year...

In many ways, the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama on 28-30 May was a dry run for Tokyo's Group of 8 summit in Hokkaido...

Behind the Yokohama summit scenery, Japanese civil servants continued with their reorganisation. Key to this is the Japan International Cooperation Agency under its President, Sadako Ogata, the driving force behind the...

From now on, Japan's non-governmental organisations will operate more like British NGOs such as Oxfam and Christian Aid, which manage substantial state aid funds. Local NGOs were barely represented at...

An island at the heart of Southeast Asia and a landlocked state in the heart of Africa are an unlikely couple. Singapore has skyscrapers and strict discipline, Rwanda has its...

President S.R. Nathan: took office in 1997, and in April 2007 became the first Singaporean President to go to Africa, with state visits to South Africa, Namibia...