Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Kira’s attendance at the Observer and Ad-hoc Observer Meeting of the Arctic Council

November 7, 2012
Japanese

On November 6 at local time, Mr. Shuji Kira, Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, attended the Observer and Ad-hoc Observer Meeting of the Arctic Council (AC) in Stockholm, Sweden, a vice-ministerial meeting, held by the AC chairmanship, Sweden.

In the meeting, the Swedish chairmanship explained challenges facing the AC and measures taken by the AC, especially the measures to strengthen the AC, and agendas with high priority for the Swedish chairmanship.

In the meeting, Mr. Kira stated that Japan would highly commend these activities of the AC briefed by the Swedish chairmanship, and Japan would be ready to contribute to the AC as an observer, by enjoying more stable status than ad-hoc one. Mr. Kira also expressed that Japan had fulfilled the criteria for admitting observers, established at the last Ministerial Meeting in 2011, and showed Japan’s strong wish that the decision by the AC to approve Japan’s application for a permanent observer status be made in the up-coming Ministerial Meeting in May 2013 held in Kiruna, Sweden.

(related information)
The Arctic Council

The Arctic Council is a high-level intergovernmental forum established in 1996 to provide a means for promoting cooperation, coordination and interaction among the 8 Arctic States (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United States of America), with the involvement of the Arctic Indigenous communities and other Arctic inhabitants on common Arctic issues; in particular, issues of sustainable development and environmental protection in the Arctic. Japan submitted its format application for the observer status in the Council in July 2009

This meeting is held by the Swedish chairmanship. Sweden, the current AC chairman, invited 26 observers including France, Germany, Netherland, Poland, Spain, the UK, international organizations and non-governmental organizations, and 7 ad-hoc observers including China, the European Commission, Italy, Japan, South Korea, international organizations and non-governmental 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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