Prime Minister Noda’s Official Visit to Laos and Participation in the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM9)

November 2, 2012
Japanese

From Sunday, November 4, to Wednesday, November 7, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is scheduled to make his official visit to Laos to participate in Asia-Europe Meeting(ASEM) and to hold meetings with leaders of Laos.

At ASEM9, discussions will be held on economic and financial issues, global issues, regional issues, people to people interaction, and the future direction of ASEM.

ASEM is a dialogue forum founded in 1996 aimed at strengthening the relationship between Asia and Europe, in which Asian and European countries as well as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat and the European Union (EU) participate. Furthermore, Bangladesh, Switzerland, and Norway are newly participating in ASEM from ASEM9 and thus the number of participating countries and organizations has increased to 49 countries and two organizations.

(*The foregoing is a provisional translation. The date indicated above denotes the date of issue of the original press release in Japanese.)

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