Press Releases
Courtesy call on Foreign Minister Kamikawa by the Ambassadors of the G20 Troika Countries
January 25, 2024
On January 25, commencing at 10:10 a.m., for approximately 30 minutes, Ms. KAMIKAWA Yoko, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, received a courtesy call from the Ambassadors of the G20 Troika Countries (H.E. Mr. Sibi George, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to Japan, H.E. Mr. Octavio Henrique Dias Garcia Cortes, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federative Republic of Brazil to Japan, and H.E. Mr. Lulama Smuts Ngonyama, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of South Africa to Japan), as one of her proactive outreach efforts.
The overview is as follows.
- At the outset, Minister Kamikawa expressed her gratitude for the warm messages of condolence from the three countries over the damage caused by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. Minister Kamikawa also stated that, through visiting European countries, including Ukraine, as well as North America and Turkey from the beginning of the year and exchanging opinions directly with people in the fields, she renewed her awareness of the need for guiding the international community toward cooperation rather than division and confrontation. Minister Kamikawa stated that she would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our cooperation for the G20 Rio de Janeiro Summit.
- Furthermore, Minister Kamikawa stated that last year, Japan, as the then-G7 presidency, worked closely with India, the then-G20 presidency, on the basis of the idea of linking the outcome of the G7 Hiroshima Summit to the G20 Summit, which led to concrete results. Minister Kamikawa told that Japan will spare no effort to cooperate for the success of Brazil’s G20 presidency.
- In response, the three ambassadors pointed out the importance of cooperation as the G20 and Japan’s role in it. In particular, Ambassador Cortes explained the priority issues of Brazil’s G20 presidency this year and expressed his expectation for Japan’s cooperation. Minister Kamikawa stated that the fight against hunger and poverty, which Brazil particularly emphasizes, is extremely important from the perspective of protecting human dignity.
- Also, Minister Kamikawa exchanged views with each ambassador on cooperation at the G20 in areas such as global governance reform, including UN reform, and gender, including Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) as well as regional affairs such as the situation in Ukraine and the situation in Israel and Palestine. Minister Kamikawa confirmed Japan’s willingness to continue to work together with the G20 Troika to uphold the rule of law and the principles of the UN Charter, whose importance was reaffirmed at the G7 Hiroshima Summit last year.