"The World and Japan" Database (Project Leader: TANAKA Akihiko)
Database of Japanese Politics and International Relations
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS); Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), The University of Tokyo

[Title] Statement by Mr. Yutaka Banno, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs at the Launch of the "Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections and keeping their mothers alive"

[Place] New York
[Date] June 9, 2011
[Source] Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan
[Notes]
[Full text]

Mr. Michel Sidibe, Executive Director, UNAIDS,

Ambassador Eric Goosby, US Global AIDS Coordinator,

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, President of Nigeria,

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, UN

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Government of Japan, I should first of all like to express my deep appreciation to Mr. Sidibe and Ambassador Goosby for their leadership as co-chairs of the task team in developing and launching the Global Plan.

Japan has attached importance to reinforcing comprehensive efforts on maternal and child health (MNCH) as a means to effectively prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT), and hence proposed to emphasize that in the Global Plan. We are pleased that our suggestion has been incorporated in the Plan that has just been launched.

We would like to extend our cooperation in achieving the goal set forth in the Plan – reducing the number of new HIV infections among children by 90% and the number of AIDS-related maternal deaths by 50%.

Japan's new Global Health Policy, announced by Prime Minister Kan at the UN MDGs Summit in September 2010, prioritizes assistance to MNCH as well as measures against infectious diseases.

MNCH is given particular importance in the Policy, which introduces "EMBRACE", a package of effective interventions that ensure seamless care for mothers and infants from prenatal through postnatal phases. We believe that the package will prove to be an effective intervention against PMTCT.

The Policy also commits Japan to providing an assistance of 5 billion US dollars over 5 years beginning in 2011 to contribute to the achievement of health-related MDGs, including a contribution of up to 800 million US dollars to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the coming years. Japan remains determined to implement the "Kan Commitment" even after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

We have received a great many warm words of condolences as well as generous assistance from the international community in the aftermath of the disaster, which has caused us to reaffirm the importance and potential of global solidarity. It is in this light that Japan will stand united with the world in contributing to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals including the PMTCT.

Thank you very much.