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Meeting and Dinner between Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Seiji Maehara and Secretary-General of ASEAN Surin Pitsuwan (Overview)

October 20, 2010
Japanese

On October 20 (Wed) from 6:45 to 8:30 p.m., Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Seiji Maehara held a meeting and a dinner at Iikura House with H.E.Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who is visiting Japan as a distinguished guest of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The overview of the meeting is as follows.

1. At the start, Minister Maehara welcomed the Secretary-General’s visit to Japan, noting that his visit right before the ASEAN Summit Meeting scheduled at the end of this month demonstrates the importance ASEAN places on Japan.
   
   
2. Minister Maehara also said that Japan intends to proactively support the effort toward development of regional community by ASEAN, which is at the core of the regional frameworks including the East Asia Summit (EAS), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and to make an active contribution itself in this process while respecting ASEAN centrality. He continued that with Japan’s New Growth Strategy recently formulated, he considers that assistance can be provided through public-private partnership in the areas of infrastructure and system development, with a view to applying Japan’s outstanding experience and technology in order to meet Asia’s enormous infrastructure demand and to address related issues.
   
   
3. Minister Maehara expressed an intention to further deepen the relationship with ASEAN by taking advantage of the occasion of the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting scheduled later this month, and Secretary-General Surin welcomed the statement. Furthermore, Minister Maehara and Secretary-General Surin agreed to further develop Japan-ASEAN relations through a permanent Ambassador to ASEAN, which Japan established ahead of all non-ASEAN nations.
   
   
4. Minister Maehara pointed out the benefit of dialogue between the ASEAN Secretariat and the Japanese business community. He expressed his interest in bolstering ASEAN’s competitiveness by incorporating proposals from the said business community, as well as in promoting the Track 2 dialogue by experts and youth exchanges.
   
   
5. Minister Maehara said that Japan is also intent on making a contribution through the development of the Mekong region toward redressing intra-ASEAN disparity and enhancing connectivity of transportation systems. Secretary-General Surin welcomed this statement.

Related Information (Japan-ASEAN Relations)