Japan-Republic of South Africa Relations
Meeting between Mr. Masahisa Sato, State Minister for Foreign Affairs and Mr. Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President, ECOWAS Commission
August 29, 2019
On August 29, for about 30 minutes, from 15:30 am, in Yokohama, Mr. Masahisa Sato, State Minister for Foreign Affairs held a meeting with Mr. Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission. The overview of the meeting is as follows. President Brou is visiting Japan to participate in the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) held from August 28 to 30.
- At the outset, State Minister Sato remarked, “I welcome your first participation in TICAD. Together with President Brou, I would like to make the seventh TICAD successful and strengthen the ties between Japan and ECOWAS.” In response, President Brou congratulate for the successful TICAD7.
- Following that, State Minister Sato stated that peace and stability in Africa is one of the main topics of TICAD7, and that Japan supports ECOWAS’s efforts in the field and expects ECOWAS’s active participation in the discussions. He also expressed Japan’s intention to cooperate with ECOWAS referring the importance of its efforts for the regional economic integration in view of investment to Africa by Japanese companies. In response, President Brou expressed his hope for Japan’s assistance in security and infrastructure investment in ECOWAS member countries which face security, political and economic challenges.