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On March 16, DPJ Vice President Seiji Maehara met with Bill Rammell, Minister of State at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and held a valuable exchange of opinions on the financial crisis currently enveloping the world, in the run-up to the G20 summit, to be held in London in April. The meeting was also attended by the Chair of the Standing Officers Council, Hiroshi Nakai, the Director-General of the Executive Office Tenzo Okumura, and Vice Chair of the Financial Committee Katsumasa Suzuki for the DPJ.
Maehara said, “We still have not hit bottom in this financial crisis, which former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan described as ‘a once-in-a century tsunami’, but in order to prevent the world from retreating to protectionism, as well as to prevent a repetition of the Great Depression of the late 1920s, we need to strengthen cooperation between Japan and the United Kingdom, as well as international cooperation.”
Minister Rammell said it was hoped that the following topics could be discussed and considered at the G20 summit meeting: (1) strengthening regulations in the financial sector, (2) emphasising the public finance sector, (3) low carbon strategy, and (4) preventing a return to protectionism.
The two sides engaged in a lively exchange of opinions regarding assistance to Afghanistan and other topics, and expressed their intention of continuing such dialogues in the future.
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