Henrik Schmiegelow, the new German ambassador to Japan, said Thursday it was no coincidence that Germany and Japan were asked to host recent conferences on Afghan peace and reconstruction.
"The reason why our two countries were asked by third parties reflects something about our structure, about our political system, about our economic capacities that make me think that Germany and Japan in some instances can work functionally, very well together," he told the Japan National Press Club.
At the request of the United Nations, Germany staged an Afghan peace conference in Bonn from late November through December.
Japan hosted an Afghan aid conference in Tokyo last month at the request of the United States.
The four Afghan factions that participated in the peace talks in Bonn agreed that Pashtun tribal leader Hamid Karzai would lead an interim government in Afghanistan.
International donors that assembled in Tokyo followed this up by pledging more than $4.5 billion in aid to the war-torn country, including a pledge of some $1.8 billion for this year alone.
During a meeting with former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka in the wake of the Afghan aid conference, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's minister of economic cooperation and development, said Germany would cooperate with Japan on the rehabilitation of Afghanistan, according to a Japanese official.
Schmiegelow became the German ambassador to Japan in December, his first overseas posting after entering the German Foreign Ministry.