Statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the Situation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

August 23, 2001

Japan welcomes the decision made by NATO on August 22 at the North Atlantic Council (ambassador-level) to dispatch approximately 3,500 troops to Macedonia to collect weapons voluntarily handed over by ethnic Albanian extremists.
Although the situation in Macedonia remains unpredictable, the recent development including the achievement of political agreement by the political parties in Macedonia (on August 13) is an important step toward stability in the country. Japan sincerely hopes that this operation of collecting weapons by NATO and the implementation of the political agreement will be carried out smoothly without losing this momentum and that true peace and stability will be achieved.

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