Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his British counterpart Philip Hammond agreed to help finance a U.N. initiative aimed at improving border security in Tunisia, in line with their countries' efforts to boost security cooperation related to developing countries in Asia and Africa, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
Meeting on the fringes of the foreign ministerial talks of the Group of Seven countries in Hiroshima on Sunday, Kishida and Hammond said their respective funding will be disbursed to a program under the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime designed to upgrade the border security situation in Tunisia.
Better border security capabilities are sought to fight the flow of illicit drugs and prevent the entry of terrorists. Tunisia's landmark museum in the capital city Tunis was the site of a deadly shooting rampage last year in which over 20 tourists were killed.