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Foreign Minister Mr. Taro Kono’s attendance to EU-hosted High Level Meeting on Syria and Japan’s new humanitarian assistance to support the Syrians

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Govt. Japan
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On September 26th (Wednesday),Mr. Taro Kono, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, attended the EU-hosted High Level Meeting on Syria in New York. This meeting was held as follow-up to the Second Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region in April this year.

  1. Minister Kono expressed his deep concern over the possibility of a large scale military conflict and the potential use of chemical weapons in Idlib province. Then, stressing that lasting peace and stability in Syria can only be achieved through the political process in Geneva and national reconciliation, Mr. Kono emphasized his strong support to the effort of Mr. Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria including the establishment of the constitutional committee.

  2. Minister Kono also announced Japan’s new humanitarian assistance (PDF) Open a New Window worth about 10 million USD through WHO to support health sector in Syria, introducing Japan’s principle of assistance to Syria to deliver humanitarian assistance to all Syrians facing difficulties.

  3. In the conference, all participants confirmed the importance of advancing the political process, including the establishment of the constitutional committee and that there is no military option to solve the Syria crisis.

(Annex) Additional Grant Assistance to Syria

The details of Japan’s additional assistance to Syria are as follows. After the signing of Exchange of Notes of the following project between the Government of Japan and the World Health Organization (WHO), our assistance towards inside Syria will reach over 440 million dollars since 2012.

  1. Humanitarian Assistance to Syrian people including internally displaced people

    (1) On September 7, the Government of Japan decided to provide additional grant assistance to Syria worth 10 million US dollars through WHO for Syrian people including internally displaced people as the assistance of an emergency or humanitarian nature.

    (2) After seven years since the outbreak of the Syrian crisis in March 2011, as to the health sector in Syria, it is reported that more than half of health centers and medical facilities have been closed or disordered. This assistance aims at contributing to improve humanitarian situation in Syria by enhancing access to the stable health and medical services for Syrian people including internally displaced people, through various components, such as provision of medical equipment, rehabilitation of primary health care facilities and capacity building of health care workers.

  2. On the occasion of the G7 Ise-Shima Summit in 2016, Japan announced a comprehensive support worth approximately 6 billion dollars for the stabilization of the Middle East. The above mentioned project will be a part of the implementation of this commitment.

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