Japan-Niger Foreign Ministers' Meeting

July 4, 2012
Japanese

(Photo)Japan-Niger Foreign Ministers' Meeting-2

On Wednesday, July 4, Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with S.E.M. MOHAMED Bazoum, Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, African Integration and Nigerian Expatriates, who was visiting Japan to attend the World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tohoku, from 2:20 p.m. for approximately 20 minutes. An overview of the meeting is as follows:

At the beginning
Minister Gemba expressed his gratitude for Foreign Minister Bazoum's attendance at the "World Ministerial Conference on Disaster Reduction in Tohoku", mentioned good Japan-Niger relations symbolized by stable supply of uranium from Niger to Japan for more than 40 years, and stressed that for further enhancement of the relations, improvement of security conditions was important.
Bilateral relations
Minister Gemba requested cooperation from Niger for the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) to be held in Yokohama next June. In response, Foreign Minister Bazoum expressed his expectation and intention of cooperation for the TICAD process.
Moreover, both ministers expressed concerns over rapidly worsening humanitarian conditions in the Sahel region, including Niger, caused by complex situations such as draught, political instability, and increase of Islamic extremists in northern Mali and confirmed the necessity to address the issue with the cooperation of the international community. Then, Foreign Minister Bazoum requested support from Japan as well.
Economic cooperation
Minister Gemba explained progress of economic cooperation from Japan to Niger and Foreign Minister Bazoum expressed his gratitude for the many years of economic cooperation from Japan to Niger.

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

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