Meeting between Mr. Nobutaka Machimura, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Ilkka Kanerva, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland

August 31, 2007

From 16:45 to about 17:15 on August 28 at the Minister’s reception room, Mr. Nobutaka Machimura, Minister for Foreign Affairs, held talks with Mr. Ilkka Kanerva, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Finland. The gist of the meeting is as follows:

At the outset, Mr. Machimura welcomed Mr. Kanerva’s visit to Japan and expressed his respect for Finland’s contribution to making the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) successful as the chair country of the European Union last September. Mr. Machimura said that he wished to further cooperate on various kinds of international issues and develop bilateral relations as partners sharing fundamental values.
In response, Mr. Kanerva said that Finland respected Japan as a great contributor to the international community and supported Japan’s permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). He also said that he welcomed the fact that Japan’s economy had regained its strength and wished to strengthen relations with Japan.
Mr. Machimura stated that Japan and Finland had continued active interaction in the field of economic activities, and especially welcomed interaction in the private sector including in the field of information technology. Mr. Machimura said that he wished to further develop bilateral relations of cooperation in this field.
Mentioning that Finland will be a chair country of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) next year, Mr. Kanerva said that it was beneficial for both countries to continue to discuss foreign policy. The two ministers also exchanged opinions on relations with Russia, which was a neighboring country of both Japan and Finland.

(END)

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