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On August 9, DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in Tokyo. The two discussed Ban’s visit to the areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake, the worsening food crisis in Africa and the possible dispatch of an SDF engineering unit to Southern Sudan.
One of the purposes of Ban’s trip to Japan was to visit the disaster-affected areas. He explained that he had visited evacuation centres in Fukushima city and Minami-soma city and encouraged evacuees to “demonstrate solidarity with the Japanese people, and in particular those in the affected areas.” He commented, “I am convinced that the Japanese people will be able to overcome the tremendous challenges they face.”
Okada expressed his gratitude to Ban for his visits to the affected areas and his encouragement of evacuees, as well as for the support and encouragement received by the Japanese people from the international community, and in particular the United Nations following the earthquake and tsunami. Okada went on to express the opinion that Japan as a nation would continue to develop while maintaining its relations with the international community, and stated he would like to further deepen his cooperative relationship with Ban.
The two sides also discussed the humanitarian impact of the food crisis facing Somalia and other countries in the Horn of Africa. Ban also requested that Japan extend additional economic aid, as well as dispatching a Ground SDF engineering unit to Southern Sudan to participate in peace-keeping operations there.
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