“ Telephone Conference between Japanese Foreign Minister Komura and Secretary of State Rice

Embassy of Japan

May 22, 2008

On 22 May, Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura had a telephone conversation with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that took place for about 20 minutes. The following is a summary of the conversation.

1. Referring to his recent visit to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Minister Koumura said that he planned to bring up issues related to Afghanistan at G8 Summit meeting as one of pressing issues. He stated that Japan, as chair of the G8 Summit this year, would call on the international community to strengthen its efforts to increase stability in and reconstruction of Afghanistan. At the same time, taking the Donors Conference at Paris into the consideration, he mentioned that he would like to continue cooperating with the United States on the matter. Secretary Rice responded that the United States put utmost emphasis on the improvement of stability in and reconstruction of Afghanistan and that she would also like to work in close cooperation with Japan in dealing with the issue.

2. Further, based on the discussion of the recent U.S.-Japan-ROK trilateral meeting on North Korean issues, the two shared view that the countries would work in close cooperation and make tenacious efforts to bring North Korea to submit a declaration at an early stage. Moreover, they agreed that two countries would continue cooperating in order to make a progress in Japan-North Korea relations including denuclearization and abduction issues.