Foreign Minister Yohei Kono to Visit Europe

January 7, 2000

Mr. Yohei Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs, will visit Italy, the U.K. and France from January 8 (Sat) to 15 (Sat), and attend the Japan-EU (European Union) Ministerial Conference to be held on January 11 in Brussels, Belgium.
During his stay in Italy, the U.K. and France, Mr. Kono will have talks respectively with Mr. Lamberto Dini, Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Robin Cook, U.K. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr. Hubert Védrine, French Minister for Foreign Affairs, and others. He will also pay courtesy calls on Prime Ministers and other leaders. On these occasions, he intends to have wide-ranging exchanges of views on multilateral issues such as the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations, and also on major regional issues and respective bilateral relations.
In Brussels, Mr. Kono will attend the Japan-EU Ministerial Conference on January 11 (Tue) to discuss various international economic issues including Japan-EU economic relations, Japan-EU cooperation for the early launch of the next WTO round, and so on. He will also pay a courtesy call on Mr. Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, and will exchange views with Dr. Javier Solana Madariaga, High Representative for EU Common Foreign and Security Policy, and The Rt. Hon. George Robertson, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

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