Countries & Regions

On June 2, for about 20 minutes from 15:45 pm, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a meeting with His Majesty King Mswati III, Kingdom of Swaziland, in Yokohama, Japan. The following is the gist of the meeting. H.M. King Mswati III is visiting Japan to participate in the Fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V) held from June 1 to 3.

1. At the beginning of the meeting, Prime Minister Abe said that he is honored to have had an opportunity to meet and talk with H.M. King Mswati at the Second Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Commemorative Banquet held on June 1. Prime Minister Abe welcomed the King’s visit all the way to Japan and the King’s repeated participation in the past rounds of TICAD. Prime Minister Abe expressed his hope to work together toward the success of TICAD, which celebrates its 20th anniversary, for development both in Africa and Japan. In response, H.M. King Mswati III said that Swaziland has participated in the past rounds of TICAD and that he is therefore pleased to see the progress of the TICAD process. He then saluted Japan for the fact that Japan has implemented every commitment to assist Swaziland despite the fact that Japan had recently been affected by natural disasters.
2. H.M. King Mswati went on to say that participation of private sectors and foreign investment are essential for nation-building and job creation, and that the plenary session with private sectors on the previous day, June 1, turned out to be a good opportunity for that reason. He said that Swaziland is ready to make its maximum efforts to build up partnerships with Japanese companies. The King also explained about the nation’s plan to export mineral resources and expressed his expectations for technology transfer from Japan.
3. Prime Minister Abe appreciated H.M. King Mswati III’s repeated participation in the past rounds of TICAD and his continuous contributions to the conference, and said that he hopes to further strengthen the relations between the two countries. Prime Minister Abe mentioned about a grant aid project for improving Swaziland’s crisis management capacity against natural disasters, and said that Japan would continue to contribute to building resilience of societies and poverty reduction in Swaziland. Prime Minister Abe also said that the partnership with the private sector is considered as one of the most important themes of TICAD V, and thus wished that Swaziland should try to communicate the private sector with its attractiveness.
4. In addition, the two leaders exchanged views on cooperation in the international arena including the development of Africa.