NATO HQ

12 Jan. 2007

Remarks

by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the North Atlantic Council meeting in the presence of the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Shinzo Abe

It gives me great pleasure to welcome H.E. Mr. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan to this meeting of the North Atlantic Council. Your presence today, Prime Minister, demonstrates the close relations NATO and Japan have developed over the past years.

We share common values and face common security threats. Therefore, our dialogue, our consultations and ultimately our cooperation can only enhance our joint ability to tackle security challenges. Japan has long been associated with NATO’s agenda - it can even be called NATO’s most senior Contact Country.

L’OTAN et le Japon ont longtemps été présents, d’une manière ou d’une autre, sur le même théâtre d’opérations des Balkans où le Japon a soutenu le travail de la communauté internationale.

Par ailleurs, le Japon a représenté le G-8 comme pays pilote pour le désarmement, la démobilisation et la réintégration des anciens combattants en Afghanistan.

Il a aussi accueilli la conférence de Tokyo sur la reconstruction de l’Afghanistan en janvier 2002 et il apporte depuis une vaste contribution dans les domaines de l’assistance humanitaire, de la reconstruction et de la sécurité.

The recent Riga Summit decision to strengthen NATO’s ability to work effectively with interested Contact Countries was in this regard a necessary adaptation which reflected this evolving relationship.

NATO's decision was more a question of theory joining practice than the other way around.

Prime Minister, we are thus very happy to have you here and to exchange views at a very timely moment. Welcome, once again.

May I now pass the floor to you and thereafter the Press will leave the room.