Transcript: Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda
Prime Minister David Cameron with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on offical visit to Japan.
Yoshihiko Noda (via interpreter)
Prime Minister Cameron, apart from our general conversation, this is the third time that we have met each other. Our former meetings were in New York and Cairo. It is my great pleasure to meet you here in Japan and I welcome greatly the Prime Minister to Japan.
Recently it has been the first anniversary of the great Japan earthquake disaster. We have been receiving support from your Ambassador in Japan and we are aware that the United Kingdom - it was the country which turned around the fastest and had the most calm response after the nuclear accident. We are very grateful and we thank you for your continued support and the loyalty that was shown.
Today I am looking forward to talks on the peace and security in the world. We are two countries that are jointly pursuing peace in the world and also we would like to discuss pressing issues such as North Korea and Iran and other international issues.
Prime Minister
Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for that warm welcome. It’s a huge pleasure to be visiting your country for the first time as Prime Minister.
Our countries are old friends, old trading partners and strong allies, and there are many subjects for us to discuss.
I want to repeat again the condolences and the sympathies of the British people for the terrible disaster that took place in terms of the tsunami and Fukushima. We think the Japanese people have shown enormous courage and resilience in the way you responded to such a terrible incident.
We are proud of the fact that we responded with, as you say, calm and good sense and wanted to do everything we could to help the Japanese people at that time, and we continue to do so.
I agree very much that we must discuss some of the subjects where Britain and Japan are working together at the United Nations, like Syria, like Iran, like North Korea.
I also hope we can discuss the business relations between our countries where I think we have even stronger cooperation, trading and investment. Thank you again.