North America

1. On Thursday, February 20, the first Japan-U.S. Development Dialogue (senior level) was held in Washington, D.C., United States. Japan and the United States decided to initiate the Development Dialogue based on the “Fact Sheet on United States-Japan Global Cooperation,” which was issued when Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe received a courtesy call from U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, who visited Japan in December 2013.

 

2. Deputy Director General, International Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Mr. Mitsuhiro Wada and other relevant officials from MOFA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) attended the meeting from the Japanese side, while Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the Department of State, Mr. James Zumwalt, Deputy Assistant Administrator, USAID, Mr. Tony Pipa, and other relevant officials attended from the U.S. side. 

 

3. During this first meeting of the Development Dialogue, the two countries discussed Japan-U.S. development cooperation vis-à-vis a wide range of development challenges including women’s empowerment and humanitarian assistance/disaster risk reduction as well as issues in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region.  Also, both countries welcomed the convening of a symposium about assistance for African women entrepreneurs with the participation of Japanese and American women entrepreneurs on February 3 as the first initiative of Japan-U.S. cooperation for women’s empowerment. 

 

4. Furthermore, regarding the cooperation in the area of women’s empowerment, as the Government of Japan is now developing its National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, in cooperation with civil society, to implement UN Security Council resolution 1325, Japan and the United States intend to hold a meeting between working level officials at an early date to share U.S. experiences and best practices regarding the National Action Plan. Moreover, Japan announced that it would cooperate with the United States in the “Papua New Guinea Women’s Forum,” to be hosted by the United States in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on March 6 and 7, 2014, by assisting its operation and setting up a booth introducing the scheme of Japan’s ODA. 

 

5. At the Dialogue, Japan and the United States shared the view that enhanced cooperation on development between the two countries will widen the scope of the bilateral relations and contribute to constructing more multi-faceted and strengthened bilateral relations, and confirmed that both countries will continue to promote further concrete cooperation on development. 

 

6. Both sides agreed that the next Development Dialogue will be held at a mutually convenient time within the next year.