Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 19, 2019 (SKNIS): His Excellency Tatsuo Hirayama, Ambassador-designate of Japan to the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister, Dr. the Honourable Timothy Harris, on Tuesday, March 19, at his office at Government Headquarters, where they discussed in short, the outlook for advancing the relationship between both countries.
Prime Minister Harris officially welcomed and congratulated His Excellency Hirayama on his new post.
“We welcome you to St. Kitts and Nevis, we are delighted that you have received this elevated status from your government and that you are here to make the relationship with St. Kitts and Nevis and Japan one of the best,” said Prime Minister Harris. “We will be relying of course on your skills and of course the confidence of your government in you, to put that to work for the mutual benefit of our two countries.”
Dr. Harris used the occasion to comment on the diplomatic relations enjoyed between both countries dating as far back as 1985.
“We have built on that through cooperation in a number of areas including matters to do with International Whaling Commission (IWC), fishing, infrastructure… and we have quite a bit of projects including our fisheries market and several other infrastructural developments,” he said.
“We look forward to broadening and deepening the cooperation between our two countries to look at some new areas and we hope that your government, an important player internationally, would assist us in advocacy in terms of some of the matters which are of significant importance to us a small island state and to us in the Caribbean,” Prime Minister Harris added.
His Excellency Hirayama shared similar sentiments and gave his support to ensure that the relationship between both countries continues to grow from strength to strength.
“I am convinced that our two countries, for more than 30 years, have established excellent relationship, so my humble task is to further our excellent relations,” said the ambassador-designate. “…Our excellent relationship is based on shared common values that include democracy, human rights and rule of law. Particularly for the last 30 years, we have been cooperating in the areas of fisheries and more recently, disaster prevention management and also climate change.”
The ambassador-designate noted that the abovementioned areas are serious issues for countries like St. Kitts and Nevis and said that he looks forward to working with the government to better manage the said issues.
This is His Excellency Hirayama’s first official visit to the Federation. On Monday, he presented his credentials as the new ambassador, as well as Letters of Recall of his predecessor to His Excellency the Governor General Sir S.W. Tapley Seaton, GCMG, CVO, QC, JP. His Excellency Hirayama previously served as Consul General to Japan in Perth, Australia.
