Japan-Mauritius Relations
Courtesy Call on Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth of the Republic of Mauritius by Foreign Minister MOTEGI Toshimitsu
December 13, 2020
On December 13, commencing at around 10:00 a.m. (local time; 3:00 p.m. JST) for approximately 40 minutes, Mr. MOTEGI Toshimitsu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, who was visiting Mauritius, paid a courtesy call on Honourable Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, Prime Minister of the Republic of Mauritius. The overview is as follows.
- At the outset, Minister Motegi expressed his pleasure to be the first Foreign Minister of Japan to visit Mauritius. Prime Minister Jugnauth welcomed Minister Motegi’s visit and stated that he was pleased to hold a face-to-face meeting despite the COVID-19 pandemic, following the telephone talk in September.
- Minister Motegi presented the progress on the cooperation committed to at the telephone talk in September, touching on the activities of the JICA survey team: (1) a technical cooperation project on recovering the environment and restoring the livelihoods of the people engaging in fishery would be, based on the result of the survey, initiated in the next month at the earliest; (2) a technical cooperation project for preventing maritime accidents would be implemented at the earliest possible date and also grand aid to support for monitoring maritime navigation was under consideration aiming to commence as early as possible ; and (3) implementation of swift financial support would be considered based on the request of the Government of Mauritius and a Public-Private Sector Joint Mission would be sent to the country in February next year in order to promote investments from Japan to Mauritius for recovering and developing the economy of Mauritius. Building on these supports, Minister Motegi stated that he would like to achieve more steadfast bilateral relations than ever before. In response, Prime Minister Jugnauth extended his heartfelt appreciation for Japan’s cooperation and expressed his hope to see increase in Japan’s investments in Mauritius to restore and develop its economy, driven by the dispatch of the Private-Public Sector Joint Mission for promoting trade and investment.
- Minister Motegi stated that Japan would like to closely cooperate with Mauritius as the state facing to a main artery of the global maritime transportation and as the maritime, democratic state, in a wide range of areas toward achieving a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” from the viewpoints of ensuring freedom and safety of navigation and blue economy. In this respect, Prime Minister Jugnauth expressed his full support to this idea. Minister Motegi also expressed his pleasure to sign the exchange of notes to provide equipment to improve the disaster prevention capabilities of Mauritius. Prime Minister Jugnauth expressed his appreciation for the support extended by Japan.
- Looking ahead to TICAD8 to be held in Tunisia in 2022, both sides confirmed that the two countries would cooperate through the TICAD process. The two sides exchanged views on addressing issues related to North Korea including the abductions issue as well as the United Nations Security Council reform, and shared the view on continuing close cooperation.