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

November 18, 2011
Japanese

(Photo)Courtesy Call on Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs, by Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees-2

On Friday, November 18, Mr. Koichiro Gemba, Minister for Foreign Affairs, received a courtesy call from Mr. António Guterres, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 5:30 p.m. for around 20 minutes.

Welcoming High Commissioner's visit to Japan, Minister Gemba mentioned that the Diet had adopted a Resolution expressing Japan's strong continued commitment to refugee protection and solutions to refugee issues. He stated that he would like to continue strengthening Japan's cooperative relationship with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), from the perspective of promoting human security, among others.
High Commissioner Guterres expressed his admiration for the resilience shown by the Japanese people in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and for the continuous support provided by Japan to UNHCR. High Commissioner also pointed out a great number of similarities between the policies of UNHCR and Japan's foreign policy, such as promotion of human security, and expressed his intention for even closer relationship between UNHCR and Japan in the future.
Minister Gemba and High Commissioner Guterres also exchanged opinions on the situations in Afghanistan and the efforts to make UNHCR more effective and efficient, among other matters.

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

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