CHARLES KONG SOO

charles.kong­soo@trinidad.net.tt

Am­bas­sador of Japan Yu­ta­ka Mat­sub­ara says Japan and Trinidad & To­ba­go's 60-year bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions will con­tin­ue to be strength­ened.

He was speak­ing at the birth­day cel­e­bra­tion for the Em­per­or of Japan, which he and his wife, Masako Mat­sub­ara, host­ed at their res­i­dence at Maxwell Phillip Street, St Clair, on Fri­day.

Mat­sub­ara said "Re­flect­ing on Japan-Trinidad & To­ba­go re­la­tions, it is quite en­cour­ag­ing to note that we en­joy such ex­cel­lent co­op­er­a­tive ties based on our shared uni­ver­sal val­ues like democ­ra­cy, the rule of law and mar­ket econ­o­my.

"Next year Japan and Trinidad & To­ba­go will cel­e­brate our 60th an­niver­sary of es­tab­lish­ing diplo­mat­ic re­la­tions, and it is my sin­cere hope that our two coun­tries will ad­vance our re­la­tions to the next lev­el as we ap­proach the 2024 mile­stone.

"I be­lieve our re­la­tions would great­ly ben­e­fit from the ex­pan­sion of friend­ly ties in a wide range of ar­eas, in­clud­ing eco­nom­ic re­la­tions, ed­u­ca­tion, and cul­ture and by en­hanc­ing en­gage­ment through the strength­en­ing of peo­ple-to-peo­ple ex­changes."

In terms of the bi­lat­er­al co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the two coun­tries, he said last June, Japan was pleased to col­lab­o­rate with the Gov­ern­ment of T&T for the pro­vi­sion of med­ical equip­ment to as­sist with the re­sponse to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

He said he would like to en­cour­age Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Dr Amery Browne to work with him to­wards re­al­is­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go's rep­re­sen­ta­tion in Japan.

Mat­sub­ara is hop­ing that they can have an hon­orary Con­sul-Gen­er­al of Trinidad and To­ba­go in Japan soon, fol­lowed by the es­tab­lish­ment of an em­bassy.

Browne, who at­tend­ed, said that T&T con­tin­ued to ben­e­fit from tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion through the pro­vi­sion of ex­perts by the Japan In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion Agency (JI­CA) and the train­ing of na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go by JI­CA in ar­eas such as dis­as­ter risk re­duc­tion, ed­u­ca­tion, fish­eries de­vel­op­ment, health, ICT project plan­ning, Small and Mi­cro-En­ter­prise de­vel­op­ment, trade, vo­ca­tion­al train­ing, and waste man­age­ment.

He said of­fi­cers of the min­istry had al­so ben­e­fit­ed from par­tic­i­pa­tion in the Jun­tos!! Japan-Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean Ex­change Pro­gramme, which pro­vid­ed op­por­tu­ni­ties for young diplo­mats from Cari­com to vis­it Japan and ex­pe­ri­ence its econ­o­my, so­ci­ety, his­to­ry and di­verse cul­ture.

He ex­pressed ap­pre­ci­a­tion for Japan’s sup­port to the re­gion dur­ing and af­ter the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and its pro­vi­sion of grant aid and tech­ni­cal co­op­er­a­tion to Cari­com mem­ber states to sup­port ef­forts to mit­i­gate the im­pact of cli­mate change and im­prove the re­gion’s ca­pac­i­ty to man­age sar­gas­sum sea­weed which has posed an in­creas­ing prob­lem for the coun­try.

Guests in­clud­ed Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie, Sen­a­tor Nigel De Fre­itas, Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, Min­is­ter of Trade Paula Gopee-Scoon, Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment Don­na Cox, Min­is­ter in the Of­fice of the AG and Min­istry of Le­gal Af­fairs, Sen­a­tor Renu­ka Sagram­s­ingh-Sook­lal, mem­bers of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the Sen­ate, and Heads of Mis­sion and mem­bers of the Diplo­mat­ic Corps and mem­bers of staff of the Japan­ese em­bassy.