Saturday, June 16, 2012
Kabul (BNA) President Hamid Karzai met on Thursday with Yamane, Ryuji, Japan’s Parliamentary Senior Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Calling the Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference successful, Vice-Minister Ryuji said that the President’s wise leadership resulted in the success of today's conference which further encouraged the participant countries.
Yamane Ryuji also briefed President Karzai on his country’s preparations for the upcoming Tokyo Conference.
Thanking Ryuji for his participation as Japan’s Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Conference, the President said that Afghanistan was pleased and honored to have had Foreign Ministers and representatives from more than 40 countries, International and regional organizations in the Heart of Asia Ministerial Conference.
Pointing to the Tokyo Conference, President Karzai said that this would not be the first major international conference on Afghanistan that Japan will be hosting. Japan as a friend has made generous contributions to Afghanistan during the past ten years.
The President said that the prestige and special position Japan enjoyed among other countries in the world and the economic plan that the Afghan government had devised for the upcoming Tokyo Conference would lead to its success.
President Karzai said that Afghanistan had received strong support from the world community after signing strategic cooperation documents with a number of countries in the world and its successful participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s summit in China.
The president said that now it was the responsibility of all Afghans to make efforts more than the past for strengthening state institutions, promoting good governance and eliminating corruption as well as to make capital use of the opportunities available in the country.
Japan’s Vice- Minister of Foreign Affairs also praised the recent decisions and steps taken on the Kabul Bank case by the Afghan government.