World Trade Organization (WTO)
Senior Deputy Minister AKAHORI’s Meeting with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO)
March 18, 2025
On March 17, Mr. AKAHORI Takeshi, Senior Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan had a meeting with Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), during his visit to Geneva, Switzerland. The overview of the meeting is as follows.
- At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. AKAHORI stated that the Government of Japan strongly recognizes the need to maintain the WTO system, which is indispensable for the international community, and conveyed Japan’s determination to continue to support the WTO.
- In response, Director-General Okonjo-Iweala expressed her gratitude for Japan's consistent support to the WTO system and her expectation for continued contributions from Japan.
- The two sides exchanged their candid views on issues surrounding global trade and WTO reform from a broad perspective and confirmed that they would work even more closely together to maintain and strengthen the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core.