Japan-EU Foreign Ministers' Meeting
2nd November 2011
Minister Gemba and Baroness Ashton
Japan-EU Foreign Ministers' Meeting
On November 2 (Wed), commencing at 6:35 P.M. for around 2 hours, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Koichiro Gemba hosted a meeting and working dinner at the Iikura House for Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission.
At the outset, Minister Gemba welcomed Baroness Ashton for her second visit to Japan as High Representative, and expressed his gratitude for the sympathy and support from the EU. Concerning her visit to Miyagi prefecture on November 3, Minister Gemba said that he hoped Baroness Ashton to share correct information on the improving situation toward fully-fledged recovery upon her return home. In reply, Baroness Ashton paid her respects to the responses showed by the people of Japan, and said that she wants to consider what the EU can do for Japan by listening to the situation of recovery directly from those affected from the disaster.
Minister Gemba requested Baroness Ashton to make rational judgement about EU' s food import restrictions for Japanese products and EU citizens' visit to Japan by directly observing the situation of the affected areas.
Minister Gemba explained that Japan maintains its policy of strategically seeking high-level economic partnership agreements (EPA), and that Japan was making steady efforts to address issues of concern to the EU, and that Japan had been tackling regulatory and structural reform in earnest through taking advantage of Government Revitalization Unit process under the instruction of Prime Minister Noda. Minister Gemba also asked Baroness Ashton to further demonstrate leadership to start negotiations for the Japan-EU EPA and Political Agreement as soon as possible. Baroness Asthon replied that the ongoing process before the negotiations is extremely important in order to pave the way for the commencement of the negotiations in a positive manner, and asked for closer communication between Japan and the EU including the two ministers in order for the success of the two agreements. In addition, Baroness Ashton raised the issue of an early restart of import of European beef. In response, Minister Gemba mentioned that given that ten years had passed since the implementation of current measures against BSE, it was necessary to conduct a review of current measures across the board based on the latest scientific evidence.
In addition, they agreed to further strengthen the cooperation as global partners on global issues such as the European Financial Crisis, the Middle East peace process, Arab spring and North Korea including Abduction. To that end, they also agreed to further activate officials meetings to discuss these issues.
(END)
*This is a provisional translation. The above date denotes the date of the issue of the original press release in Japanese.
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