Landlocked Laos wants to join the International Whaling Commission to back Japan in order to end whaling moratorium. Economic reasons push Japan to want to resume whaling; similar reasons drive Laos to back Japanese requests.

Vientiane (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Laos, a country with no seas or whales, has asked to join the International Whaling Commission (IWC). The move comes ahead of an IWC conference in Alaska later this month where Tokyo is expected to push for commercial whaling to resume.

Laotian Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh made the pledge during talks in Tokyo earlier this week with his counterpart, Shinzo Abe, who announced US$ 1 million in development aid for the removal of buried, unexploded bombs.

Economic reasons have been pushing Japan to get the 20-year moratorium on whaling lifted. Similarly, Laos, one of the poorest countries in South-East Asia, is willing to back Japan in exchange for aid.

Japan’s foreign ministry still rejected suggestions that the aid was linked to Laotian support in the IWC.

Environmental group Greenpeace accused Japan of using aid to secure support from friendly developing nations, many in Africa, who have no real whaling concerns.

Commenting on the Laotian move to join the world whaling body, Junichi Sato, Greenpeace Japan's campaign leader, said there was a chance that just one vote at the IWC “could change things a lot.”

In fact, at the last IWC session, pro-whaling nations won a razor-thin victory, passing a symbolic resolution saying the whaling moratorium was no longer necessary.

However, “to join the IWC in return for receiving aid does not reflect what the Laotian people desire,” Sato said.

It is not clear however whether Laos will complete the membership process in time for the Alaska IWC conference.

• laos
• japan
• alaska
• international
• whaling
• commission
• greenpeace
• junichi
• sato