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The Diplomat
20 hours ago
- Business
- The Diplomat
CEAPAD and Japan's Cautious Approach to Palestine
There is a growing push by G-7 member states to frame Palestinian recognition as diplomatic censure of Israel's conduct in Gaza. France has pledged unconditional recognition; the United Kingdom has announced plans to recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly absent 'substantive steps' toward a ceasefire; and Canada has joined the chorus, conditional on Palestinian Authority reforms. Rather than aligning with this momentum, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hayashi Yoshimasa reiterated Tokyo's commitment to 'supporting progress for peace,' including 'the appropriate timing and methods' for advancing that goal. This careful positioning echoes earlier remarks by Japanese Foreign Minister Iwaya Takeshi, who reaffirmed Japan's longstanding support for a two-state solution and spotlighted Japan's flagship mechanism to channel aid and foster peace: the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD). Technocratic and apolitical by design, CEAPAD encapsulates Japan's longstanding approach to the Israel-Palestine issue – cautious, development-oriented, and rooted in quiet multilateralism. This preference has shaped Japan's engagement since it became one of the most steadfast bilateral supporters of Palestinian development among G-7 nations, as reflected in its extensive aid portfolio – over $2.6 billion disbursed to date, including $230 million since October 2023 alone. In March 2025, Japan, for the first time, received wounded Palestinians for medical treatment. Tokyo's approach, though consistent, now stands in sharper relief as global diplomacy recalibrates in response to the Gaza War's devastation. CEAPAD was launched in 2013, during a window of relative diplomatic opportunity shaped by the Arab Spring's aftermath and the Obama administration's cautious optimism. More than a decade later, the conflict-averse logic underpinning CEAPAD remains unchanged. Its fourth meeting (CEAPAD IV) was held in Kuala Lumpur in July 2025 – nearly two years after an attack on Israelis by Hamas triggered a massive Israeli invasion that has killed over 63,000 people. Yet despite the ongoing conflict, the forum – attended by Japan, ASEAN states, South Korea, Palestine, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) – offered little beyond routine calls for humanitarian access, reconstruction, and a reaffirmation of the two-state solution. Its 2025 action plan emphasized capacity-building and development support, once again highlighting the Jericho Agro-Industrial Park (JAIP) – a 'first-of-its-kind' initiative conceived nearly two decades ago. Yet, JAIP now reads less as a forward-looking strategy and more as a legacy project, emblematic of CEAPAD's continuity at the expense of relevance amid radically altered realities on the ground. This cautious logic extended to Japan's most recent tenure on the United Nations Security Council (2023–2024), where it adhered to familiar lines: condemning Hamas, affirming Israel's right to self-defense within international law, and supporting humanitarian aid to Gaza. But this formulaic posture quickly buckled under pressure. Japan's initial reluctance to label the October 7 attacks as 'terrorism' drew accusations of hedging, even as officials framed it as 'flexibility.' Japan's subsequent support for humanitarian resolutions – occasionally diverging from U.S. positions – was meant to convey neutrality but failed to persuade. Its rejection of a Russian-sponsored resolution, citing the absence of Hamas condemnation, was widely read in Arab capitals as tacit approval of Israel's campaign, revealing the limits of Tokyo's risk-averse, rules-based diplomacy at a time when moral clarity was increasingly expected. Such diplomatic hedging reflects deeper constraints that have long shaped Japan's role in the Middle East. More than 90 percent of its oil imports come from the region, reinforcing the imperative to maintain stable ties with Gulf producers. Constitutional pacifism limits Tokyo to humanitarian and development roles, while the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance – underpinned by Washington's staunch support for Israel – discourages political positioning that might jeopardize this strategic cornerstone. CEAPAD, in this light, is not an outlier but a microcosm of the dilemmas that have long defined Japan's regional engagement. Designed to avoid overt political confrontation, CEAPAD now struggles to respond meaningfully to the very crisis it was meant to address. Japan's tendency to follow rather than shape diplomatic responses has cast it less as a principled actor than a hand-wringing one. The dissonance is particularly stark at home. While public dissent in Japan historically remains subdued, the Gaza War has elicited sustained mobilization – rallies in Shibuya, persistent campus encampments, lone protesters holding banners for months. Even municipal actors have broken with precedent: Nagasaki's city council passed a rare resolution urging diplomatic pressure in support of Gaza, and the city's mayor declined to invite the Israeli ambassador to its annual Peace Memorial Ceremony. In the corporate sphere, Itochu Corporation withdrew from defense partnerships with Israel's Elbit Systems in early 2024, with Nippon Express soon following. These signals of domestic unease have not shifted official policy, but they expose a widening gap between Japan's bureaucratic steadiness and the moral urgency resonating across parts of its public and corporate sectors. CEAPAD's internal divisions mirror the broader diplomatic gridlock. While launched by Japan, the forum includes ASEAN members with sharply divergent positions on the conflict. Malaysia has adopted a starkly pro-Hamas stance, refusing Israeli ship entries and accusing Israel of genocide. Indonesia has endorsed South Africa's genocide case and called for Israel's suspension from the United Nations. Brunei supports full U.N. membership for Palestine. At the other end, Singapore and the Philippines reflect a more cautious line, endorsing the two-state solution but resisting punitive measures. Crucially, the Palestinian delegation at CEAPAD IV was led by a West Bank-based minister with no authority in Gaza. Since Hamas seized control of the enclave in 2007, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has played no role in its day-to-day governance of Gaza. Long before the current war, Hamas oversaw civil administration, managed aid, and employed tens of thousands of civil servants – including teachers, police, and bureaucrats – forming the core of Gaza's public sector. Despite the war's devastation, fragments of this apparatus remain intact. CEAPAD, in effect, channels development support through a leadership that has been structurally excluded from half the territory it claims to represent. The PA's legitimacy crisis compounds the problem. A poll by the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) found that only 31 percent of Gazans support a PA-led government, while 47 percent prefer a national unity arrangement. In the West Bank, just 10 percent back the PA, with 25 percent favoring Hamas. Across both territories, over 60 percent of respondents describe the PA as a burden. CEAPAD's continued focus on West Bank institutions and PA-centric frameworks only deepens its disconnect from Palestinian political realities. UNRWA's mounting controversies have further exposed CEAPAD's institutional fragility. It is now entangled in mounting legal and political controversies. A new U.S. lawsuit filed in August 2025 accuses the agency of aiding Hamas and Hezbollah, following the Trump administration's rollback of immunity protections. This follows earlier suits filed by victims of the October 7 attack. At CEAPAD IV, Iwaya reiterated Japan's intent to 'consider necessary assistance' to UNRWA, while encouraging 'enhancement of its governance.' Yet that message sits uneasily with the agency's deteriorating operational environment. Recent Israeli legislation has banned UNRWA operations in parts of East Jerusalem and sharply curtailed its access to Gaza. Japan's temporary funding suspension – later reversed – was emblematic of the reputational fallout that now shadows CEAPAD's legitimacy. This ideological dissonance hampers CEAPAD's ability to function as a strategic forum. The forum's lowest-common-denominator messaging—'two-state solution,' 'capacity-building,' 'aid delivery'—feels increasingly unmoored from the cacophony on the ground. What once passed for pragmatic ambiguity now risks irrelevance. The Middle East that CEAPAD was built to serve has been remapped. The Gaza War has torn open a Pandora's box of intractable grievances, exposing the fragility of long-favored diplomatic approaches to the Palestinian question. Whether Japan is prepared to recalibrate remains to be seen. In this altered landscape, CEAPAD – once a distinctive East Asian contribution to Palestinian state-building and a clever workaround for regional sensitivities – now feels adrift. CEAPAD, and Japan's approach to Palestine more broadly, increasingly resembles old wine in an old bottle: its framework frozen in a bygone era, ill-suited to the urgency and complexity of the present.
Arab News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Japanese FM offers support for Palestine in talk with Salameh
TOKYO: Japanese Foreign Minister IWAYA Takeshi met with Estephan Anton Salameh, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Palestine, at CEAPAD IV and expressed his hope that the conference would contribute to promoting CEAPAD's objectives of expanding assistance to Palestine. The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD IV) was held in Kuala Lumpur and Foreign Minister Iwaya reiterated Japan's support for a two-state solution for Palestine and its commitment to assisting Palestinian state-building efforts. According to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, Minister Salameh expressed his appreciation for Japan's continued support for Palestine, including through its initiatives such as CEAPAD. He also elaborated on the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza, stating that an immediate ceasefire is essential for advancing Palestinian development. Iwaya expressed deep concern over the humanitarian situation in Gaza and stated that Japan has been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible.
Malay Mail
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Singapore to launch young leaders' programme, joint police training with Japan to support Palestinian Authority
SINGAPORE, July 12 — Singapore will launch two new initiatives in 2026 to support the Palestinian Authority (PA), including a Young Leaders' Programme designed to share the city-state's expertise in governance and public administration with emerging Palestinian leaders. Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan also announced that the other initiative is a joint training programme with Japan aimed at strengthening the community policing skills of the Palestinian Civil Police. 'These initiatives build on Singapore's longstanding support for the PA's capacity-building efforts and its institutional development, as the Palestinian people prepare for statehood,' he posted on Facebook. Balakrishnan, who is in Kuala Lumpur to attend the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) and related meetings, announced the initiatives at the 4th Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD) Ministerial Meeting yesterday. Meanwhile, the minister said he also met with PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Dr Estephan Salameh and had a good discussion on developments in the Middle East. 'I invited him to visit Singapore,' he added. Singapore had previously reaffirmed that it will continue working closely with the PA, particularly through the Enhanced Technical Assistance Package, to support their capacity for administration and reconstruction. — Bernama
11-07-2025
- Politics
Japan, Others Seek Ceasefire in Gaza Strip
News from Japan Politics Jul 11, 2025 22:45 (JST) Kuala Lumpur, July 11 (Jiji Press)--Japan, Malaysia, and Palestine released a statement calling for a halt to the fighting in the Gaza Strip on Friday, after co-chairing a ministerial meeting of the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development, or CEAPAD, in Kuala Lumpur the same day. In the statement, the three said that all violence must stop to ensure the safety of civilians. They also expressed grave concern about the humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged an immediate and sustainable ceasefire to enable the delivery of large volumes of humanitarian aid. At the meeting, participants adopted an action plan for technical cooperation based on each country's strengths in areas such as health, water, sanitation and unexploded ordnance disposal. CEAPAD was launched at the initiative of Japan in 2013 to pursue a two-state solution for Palestine and Israel. Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya attended Friday's ministerial meeting, which was the first since the June 2018 gathering in Bangkok. [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.] Jiji Press
New Straits Times
11-07-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Palestine urges CEAPAD countries to take stronger political stance on crisis
KUALA LUMPUR: Palestine has called on member countries of the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD) to take a firmer and united stance on the political dimensions of the crisis, beyond offering development aid and technical assistance. Palestine's Planning and International Cooperation Minister Dr Estephan Salameh said that while CEAPAD has meaningfully contributed to Palestine's development efforts, there is now a need for stronger political solidarity amid escalating atrocities. "We want this group to be more than just a development platform. We want it to be a voice for justice and freedom for our people. "We need support in ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state," he told Bernama. Dr Salameh said this year's CEAPAD meeting is being held at a critical and painful time for the Palestinian people. "This year's meeting is taking place under very difficult circumstances. "We are here while our people are facing genocide and one of the most brutal occupations," he said. The fourth edition of CEAPAD (CEAPAD IV) today will focus on capacity-building, the reconstruction of critical infrastructure in Palestine and the effective delivery of comprehensive humanitarian aid. The meeting will be co-chaired by Dr Salameh, alongside Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya. The CEAPAD IV meeting is being held in conjunction with the 58th Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting (AMM) and related meetings under Malaysia's Asean Chairmanship. Current CEAPAD members are Japan, Palestine, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia Walid Abu Ali said CEAPAD has evolved into a meaningful platform for solidarity and political alignment among East and Southeast Asian nations. "CEAPAD represents a unique coalition of countries willing to support Palestinian state-building, not only through aid and capacity development, but also by affirming the Palestinian people's rights to dignity, self-determination and sovereignty," he said. – Bernama
