Press Release
Keynote Speech by Japanese Foreign Minister Koumura “Building Peacebuilders for the Future”(Tokyo Peacebuilders Symposium 2008)
Embassy of Japan
On March 24 and 25, Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nation University held a symposium “Tokyo Peacebuilders Symposium 2008: Peace Building Experience and Knowledge from The Asia to the World,” where Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura delivered a keynote address on peacekeeping diplomacy, setting out Japan’s aspiration as to fostering peace builders. In his speech, he mentioned the success of the first-year pilot program on Human Resource Development in Asia for Peacebuilding launched by Japanese Foreign Ministry this past September, in which Japanese and Asian Participants undertook coursework in Hiroshima followed by overseas on-the-job training on peacebuilding-related projects in conflict-affected regions, such as Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, and Kosovo. The Minister mentioned that global peacebuilding efforts have been changing dramatically in recent years, as we can see in UN Peacekeeping Operations. For example, he noted that peace keeping missions are now engaged in more diverse functions involving a greater number of people. He added that although Japan has been making a significant contribution from the perspective of financing, it is necessary for Japan to participate more proactively in the UN Peacekeeping Operations. Referring to the Prime Minister Fukuda’s policy speech in which he stated that "Japan aspires to become hub of human resource development as well as for research and intellectual contributions to further promote cooperation in field of peace-building,” Minister Koumura pledged that Japan would continue its human development program, including the continuation of the pilot program for one more year. He emphasized that it is indispensable that peace building be addressed by the international community as a whole with the cooperation of many countries, notably these of Asia and Africa, and noted the importance of providing support that will enable the people from above mentioned regions to maintain peace through their own efforts. With that in mind, he said, Japan is aiming to launch proactive cooperative partnership with PKO centers in various countries in the area of human development. Minister also mentioned, through intellectual contributions at symposium and international meetings such as TICAD IV and G8 Summit, Japan aims to become a hub for peacebuilding by formulating policy for the international communities.
The transcript of the entire speech is available at: [Related links]
*Press Release “Launching of the Pilot Program for Human Resource Development in Asia for Peacebuilding” (June 2007, The Embassy of Japan’s website)
*Speech by Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura’s speech “Japan: A Builder of Peace” (January 2008, Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website)
*Message by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura’s at the Commencement Ceremony of the Pilot Program for Human Resource Development in Asia for Peacebuilding (September 2007, Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website)
*Speech by Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso’s on the occasion of the MOFA-UNU seminar “People Building Peace: Human Resource Development in Asia for Peacebuilding” (August 2006, Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website)
* G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit (Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website)
* The Forth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD IV) (Japanese Foreign Ministry’s website) |
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