Press Releases

On July 30, commencing at 3:30 p.m. for around 20 minutes, Mr. Fumio Kishida, Minister for Foreign Affairs, received a courtesy call from the Vice Ministers of Foreign Affairs and other representatives of the Central American Integration System (SICA: Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana) member countries (El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, Belize and Honduras) and SICA’s Secretary General, who are visiting Japan to attend the Japan-SICA Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation, a policy dialogue between Japan and SICA member countries. The overview of the meeting is as follows.

1. At the outset of the meeting Minister Kishida said he was delighted that the Japan-SICA Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation was able to be held with the participation of the Dominican Republic, which has become a new member state of SICA, and SICA’s newly appointed Secretary General. Minister Kishida also stated that Japan is carrying out cooperation in various fields in the SICA member countries, and highlighted its close cooperation in the international arena, as he expressed his hope for achieving greater economic exchange in the future.
2. The representative from Panama, the current Chair of SICA, expressed appreciation for the courtesy call, which they valued as an expression of Japan’s resolve to strengthen its relationship with SICA. SICA’s Secretary General and the representative from Guatemala added that they hope to further strengthen the relationship, focusing on the three pillars of economic exchange, economic cooperation and cooperation in the international arena, towards the 80th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Central America in 2015. They also expressed gratitude for the cooperation that Japan has hitherto extended to SICA.
3. Minister Kishida said he hoped to draw on the momentum provided by the above-mentioned anniversary year of 2015 to consolidate concrete cooperative relationships, in order to strengthen the three pillars pointed out by SICA.