Countries & Regions

On June 2, for about 20 minutes from 6:20 pm, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a meeting with H.E. Mr. Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Lesotho, in Yokohama, Japan. The following is the gist of the meeting. Prime Minister Thabane 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 welcomed Prime Minister Thabane’s visit to Japan and expressed his hope for development both in Africa and Japan on the occasion of TICAD V, which marks the 20th anniversary of the TICAD process. In response, Prime Minister Thabane commended Japan for the well-organized Conference, while expressing his sincere gratitude for Japan’s support for both Africa and Lesotho.
2. Prime Minister Thabane continued to say that Japan’s assistance was all noteworthy, and in particular, its assistance for the construction of schools and the provision of food aid has steadily brought results. Prime Minister Thabane also expressed his expectation for the promotion of investment from Japan to Lesotho, which would lead to creating employment. Furthermore, Prime Minister Thabane mentioned that he was planning to visit the disaster-affected areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake during this visit.
3. Prime Minister Abe stated that Japan would continue to extend assistance in order to improve the severe food situation in Lesotho, including the newly-decided food aid, and also expressed his intention to accelerate negotiations for the conclusion of an agreement on technical cooperation, which promotes the provision of technical cooperation to Lesotho. Prime Minister Abe added that he hopes Lesotho to adopt the Japanese standard for digital terrestrial television broadcasting, which is a crystallization of Japan’s technology.
4. In addition, both prime ministers exchanged views on cooperation in the international arena including the development in Africa.
5. Prime Minister Thabane highly appreciated live music performance of Mr. Sadao Watanabe, which was showcased in an affiliated event of the Conference on June 1, commenting that the performance was so marvelous that gives the breath of life while touching on Mr. Watanabe’s popularity in South Africa. In response, Prime Minister Abe said that he would convey Prime Minister Thabane’s message to Mr. Watanabe.