Courtesy Call on Prime Minister of Australia Hon. Julia Gillard by Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeaki Matsumoto (Outline)

April 21, 2011
Japanese

Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeaki Matsumoto paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister of Australia Hon. Julia Gillard MP during her official visit to Japan and exchanged opinions with her for some fifty minutes from 16:30 on April 21, Thursday. The outline of the meeting is as follows.
At the beginning, Foreign Minister Matsumoto welcomed Prime Minister Gillard on her visit to Japan and expressed his gratitude for Australia’s support after the Great East Japan Earthquake. Foreign Minister Matsumoto also told Prime Minister Gillard that he would accompany her on the visit to Minamisanriku and encourage the victims with her. In response, Prime Minister Gillard expressed the solidarity with Japan and her conviction that Japan will recover from the disaster.
Foreign Minister Matsumoto explained the measures Japan had taken against the nuclear accident in Japan and Prime Minister Gillard responded that the Government of Australia understood that Japan was in a difficult situation and Australia would continue to stably supply Japan with energy resources.
Prime Minister Gillard mentioned the importance of Japan-Australia security cooperation including disaster relief, of achieving progress in the negotiations for a Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), and of their cooperation at the East Asia Summit (EAS) or the G20 (summit meeting concerning finance and the world economy). Foreign Minister Matsumoto responded that he would follow up on the Japan-Australia summit meeting later that day and that he would continue to make efforts to strengthen Japan-Australia cooperation including disaster relief.

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

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