On 16 January 2013, H.E. Mr. Fumio Kishida, Foreign Minister of Japan, held a telephone conference with H.E. Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of United Nations, at 11am for 20 minutes. The conference is summarized by the following points:
1. At the outset, Secretary-General Ban congratulated Foreign Minister Kishida for his recent appointment. Foreign Minister Kishida, having expressed his gratitude for the Secretary-General’s congratulatory message, stated that Japan, as the second largest financial contributor to the UN, was eager to strengthen its efforts to work with the United Nations for the peace and stability of the international community through activities such as sending PKO units.
2. Foreign Minister Kishida and Secretary-General Ban concurred on keeping close cooperation regarding the issue of North Korea’s missile launch, which was aclear violation of Security Council resolutions, and on the abduction issue.
3. Foreign Minister Kishida and Secretary-General Ban also concurred to cooperate onvarious issuessuch as the situation in Syria, development including formulating post MDGs, humanitarian assistance, as well as global issues such as climate change, and women and children.
4. Lastly, Foreign Minister Kishidaexpressed Japan’s disposition to continue addressinga wide range of issues including Security Council reform. Both showed their willingness to meet at an early occasion such as the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICADV) which will be held in June of this year.
(This is a provisional translation made by Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations from the original press release in Japanese.)
(The date and time in the text is based on Japan standard time.)
