Speech
Remarks by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at joint press conference with Prime Minster Kishida
From Department of the Taoiseach
By: Taoiseach; Micheál Martin
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In our meeting today, I conveyed to Prime Minister Kishida my sincere condolences, and those of the Irish people, on the death of former Prime Minister Abe. He was a truly significant and respected figure on the global stage.
Ireland and Japan enjoy an excellent bilateral relationship – I am pleased to be in Tokyo as we mark 65 years of diplomatic relations – and I want to thank Prime Minister Kishida for the productive and warm discussion we had today.
We are agreed on the need to advance and deepen further our relationship, and we were pleased to adopt a new “Ireland-Japan Joint Leaders’ Statement” to reflect our commitment to expanding our political, economic, and people-to-people ties in the period ahead.
It is an excellent foundation for work and I look forward to its implementation.
We also discussed our mutually beneficial economic relations - I welcome that two-way trade between Ireland and Japan is now valued at almost €20 billion. I will be using my visit to Japan to seek to further strengthen this relationship. There are a great many areas in which Ireland and Japan can work closely together to mutual benefit, as two countries committed to free and open markets.
We also discussed Russia’s war on Ukraine. I shared my experience of visiting Ukraine earlier this month and of seeing at first hand the devastation in towns near Kyiv. Russia’s actions are a gross violation of international law, which we are agreed cannot be allowed stand.
The Prime Minister and I also discussed the global impacts of Russia’s immoral war, including the despicable use of food as a propaganda weapon, threatening the most vulnerable people on earth.
We discussed the importance of a rules-based international order and the contribution that countries like Ireland and Japan can make. Ireland will step down from its position on the UN Security Council at the end of this year as Japan takes up its seat.
The Prime Minister has spoken particularly eloquently of his and Japan’s commitment to a nuclear weapons-free world. Ireland’s engagement with Japan on disarmament and non-proliferation is extensive and of long-standing. We are at one in our wish to see a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons.
Finally, can I once again thank Prime Minister Kishida for his hospitality and welcome, and for meeting me today. I hope he will be able to come back to visit Ireland at an early date.
Thanks.
