Courtesy Call on Mr. Seiji Maehara, Minister for Foreign Affairs, by Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

November 17, 2010
Japanese

On November 17 (Wed.) for about 20 minutes from 7:25 p.m., Mr. Seiji Maehara, Minister for Foreign Affairs, received a courtesy call from Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
Minister Maehara congratulated High Commissioner Guterres on having been reappointed to the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and welcomed High Commissioner’s visit to Japan during the 60th anniversary year of the founding of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). In addition, Minister Maehara told High Commissioner Guterres that Japan would like to continue strengthening cooperative relations with UNHCR from the perspective of promoting human security and peace-building.
In his response, High Commissioner Guterres expressed his deep appreciation for Japan’s assistance to date, and conveyed his expectations for even closer relations, pointing out a great number of similarities between the policies of UNHCR and Japan’s foreign policy, such as assistance to Afghanistan and Pakistan, assistance to Africa through the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), and the promotion of r human security and peace-building. Also, High Commissioner Guterres welcomed the commencement of the resettlement project, and conveyed his intention to continue cooperating on this issue.
Minister Maehara and High Commissioner Guterres also exchanged opinions on the efforts to make UNHCR more effective and efficient, among other matters.

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