Press Releases
Foreign Minister Kishida Pays a Courtesy Call on the President of Kazakhstan
On November 8, commencing at 10:55 a.m. for approximately 15 minutes, Mr. Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs, paid a courtesy call on H.E. Mr. Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, who is making an official visit to Japan. The overview is as follows.
1. Bilateral relations
(1) In his opening remarks, Foreign Minister Kishida welcomed President Nazarbayev on his fourth visit to Japan, and expressed his respect for the leadership that President Nazarbayev has exercised since independence, to which he attributed the election of Kazakhstan as the first non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from Central Asia.
(2) Minister Kishida further stated that Japan and Kazakhstan are the co-coordinators of the Article XIV process to facilitate the entry into force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) and share a special enthusiasm for a world without nuclear weapons, and welcomed President Nazarbaev’s visit to Hiroshima on this occasion as a good opportunity to demonstrate within Japan and to the rest of the world the close collaboration between the two countries in the disarmament and non-proliferation field.
(3) In response, President Nazarbayev expressed his gratitude toward the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for its cooperation regarding this visit, and expressed his desire to go forward with the dialogue based on the trust that has been built up with Japan.
2. Cooperation on the global stage
(1) Foreign Minister Kishida expressed the desire to collaborate even more closely with Kazakhstan, which will join the UNSC next year as a non-permanent member, as fellow non-permanent members from Asia.
(2) Foreign Minister Kishida also stated that the threat of North Korea has reached a new level, and expressed the desire to collaborate to further intensify pressure through the adoption of a new UNSC resolution including new sanctions, and the complete and strict implementation of the previous resolutions, etc., and expressed hope for the understanding and cooperation of Kazakhstan toward the early resolution of the abductions issue.
(3) In response, President Nazarbayev stated that Japan and Kazakhstan share the same position regarding political issues such as North Korea, and expressed the desire to cooperate together as non-permanent members of the UNSC.
3. Cooperation within the “Central Asia plus Japan” Dialogue framework
Finally, Foreign Minister Kishida stated that Japan will continue to support the open, stable, and autonomous development of the Central Asia region and contribute to the peace and stability of the entire region through the “Central Asia plus Japan” Dialogue framework.