Statement by Mr. Itsunori ONODERA,
Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs
at the Fifteenth Meeting of OSCE Ministerial Council
November 30 2007
Japanese
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am greatly honored to be here and have this opportunity to address you at the Fifteenth Meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Madrid. At the outset, Japan would like to highly commend the leading role played by the Chairman, the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Spain, His Excellency, Miguel Angel Moratinos throughout his tenure.
Mr. Chairman,
The international security environment has recently been witnessing great changes. Besides the "traditional" regional instability including confrontation between states, we are now facing diversified threats such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. To address these new challenges effectively, united response and further efforts of the international community are needed more than ever. The OSCE has greatly contributed early on to the stability and prosperity of the region, taking a comprehensive security approach in various dimensions: conflict prevention, consolidation of human rights and democracy, and environmental security. The role that the OSCE should play is getting greater than ever, as the world's most inclusive regional security organization, encompassing the Eurasian continent.
(Mutual understanding between the OSCE and Asia)
Japan welcomes the expected adoption of the Ministerial Declaration on the OSCE Partners for Co-operation at this meeting. Why do I say welcomes? Because I'm convinced that further cooperation is inevitable between the OSCE and Partners for cooperation which share fundamental values, since the security environments in Europe and the rest of the world have been closely inter-connected.
Despite the dynamics for greater prosperity, the security environment in Asia is facing a serious challenge; North Korea's missile development and proclaimed nuclear test pose a direct threat to the peace and security of not only East Asia but also the entire international community. This also constitutes a serious challenge to the non-proliferation regime with the Non-Proliferation Treaty at its core. Japan is continuing its utmost effort in the framework of the Six-Party Talks towards full implementation of the Joint Statement of September 2005.
At the same time, we should never forget that there remain serious concerns about human rights in the region. Especially, concerning North Korea there remains the issue of abductions, of which a number of countries are victims. Japan, in cooperation with the international community, will continue to call upon North Korea to take concrete action towards improving human rights, including the resolution of the abduction issue.
To address these Asian challenges, strengthening the relationship between the OSCE and the ASEAN Regional Forum, ARF, is now growing more and more important. As a concrete step for such enhancement, the ARF Workshop on confidence building measures and preventive diplomacy is scheduled to be held next year in Berlin. I count on the active participation from the OSCE participating States.
(Cooperation in the region to which Japan and the OSCE attach importance)
For Central Asia, the Balkans and Afghanistan, both Japan and the OSCE are striving to assist in their aspirations and efforts to achieve political stability and economic prosperity based on democracy and market economy.
As for Central Asia, Japan has been promoting intra-regional cooperation within the framework of "Central Asia plus Japan" Dialogue. From the same perspective, Japan supported holding the OSCE conference on development of transportation for Central Asia in Dushanbe last October. Furthermore, Japan has taken part in the OSCE monitoring mission for the parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan, Armenia and others. We also plan to participate in the OSCE monitoring missions for Kyrgyzstan's parliamentary election and Uzbekistan's presidential election, both to be held next month.
As for the West Balkans, a Japanese officer is now successfully conducting his assignment in the "OSCE Spillover Monitor Mission to Skopje", in addition to the many other Japanese personnel contributions to previous OSCE elections monitoring missions.
Mr. Chairman,
Japan and the OSCE share common interests in a stable and prosperous Afghanistan as well. Even though the security situation there would not allow hasty optimism, we should seize every opportunity for demonstrating the support and the solidarity of the international community to the government of Afghanistan. Japan will actively contribute toward peace and stability of a democratic Afghanistan. To fight terrorism in this region, the Japanese government is determined to make its utmost effort to achieve a prompt enactment of the bill for the resumption of Japan's refueling activities in the Indian Ocean at the earliest possible time.
(OSCE comprehensive security approach and "Human Security")
Mr. Chairman,
To effectively address diverse threats of today, we should pay more acute attention to the "Human Security" dimension in our response actions. "Human Security" means fixing our eyes on each individual exposed to those threats. We should focus our efforts on developing each man and woman's rich potential through their protection and empowerment. "Human security" is a bottom-up approach. Our objective should be nation-building based on people's capacity-building and local community development. There is an evident convergence between this concept of "Human Security" and the OSCE comprehensive security approach. Japan and the OSCE participating states co-organized the "Workshop on Human Security" last May. There we came to the conclusion that Japan and the OSCE should continue to cooperate and coordinate to promote the concept of "Human Security". You can count on Japan to work closely with the OSCE to achieve this goal.
(Conclusion)
Finally, I would like to reiterate that Japan is resolved to fulfill its responsible role at all the relevant international fora for addressing the wide-ranging issues the international community faces. Especially, I would like to emphasize that Japan will host the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) next May under the concept of "Towards a Vibrant Africa". Japan is eager to mobilize the wisdom and resources of the international society to African development. Japan will also host the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit next July, making every possible effort to bring forward our collective response to the global issues affecting the destiny of humankind - most notably, environment and climate change, development and Africa, world economy and political issues including non-proliferation.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the OSCE with its member states and partner countries for their support and understanding.
In conclusion, I would like to reaffirm Japan's willingness to cooperate closely with the OSCE under the leading role to be played by His Excellency, Ilkka Kanerva, Foreign Minister of Finland as the next President.
Thank you very much for your kind attention.
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