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On September 28, DPJ Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi received a courtesy call from Mexican Ambassador-designate Claude Heller Rouassant inside the Diet building. The meeting was also attended by Administration Committee Chair Naoki Tanaka, International Department Director-General Koichiro Watanabe, and Vice Directors-General Shinkun Haku and Gaku Kato.
At the start of the meeting Koshiishi welcomed the Ambassador, and said “We are grateful for the warm support received from Mexico in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Japan and Mexico have built up a bilateral relationship lasting for 400 years. Our friendship has been further deepened by the visit of President Calderon to Japan last year and the expressions of solidarity shown by the people of Mexico.”
Heller stated, “Both Mexico and Japan frequently suffer from natural disasters. The terrible disaster of March 11 was an extremely regrettable event, but I feel that it has strengthened the ties between our two nations.” He also touched on the EPA agreement between the two countries, a protocol for amending which had been signed the previous day, and expressed his expectations for the expansion of bilateral cooperation in economic affairs, trade and a variety of other areas including culture and the arts. With regard to parliamentary exchanges, he reported that a Mexico-Japan parliamentary friendship league had recently been established in the Mexican parliament.
In response, the DPJ-side expressed a willingness to work to reinvigorate the Japan-Mexico Parliamentarian’s League, and pointed out the importance of exchanges between political parties, parliaments and youth people. Heller expressed the opinion that it would be important to further strengthen the cooperative relationship between the two countries within the framework of the international community.
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