[Title] Opening Remark by Foreign Minister Kishida at the 2014 Japan-OSCE Conference

Your Excellency Mr. Zannier, Secretary General of the OSCE,

Your Excellencies and distinguished delegates

from the OSCE Participating States and the Partners for Co-operation,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the host country of the 2014 OSCE-Japan Conference, please allow me to extend a few words at this session.

The security environments in Asia and Europe have become mutually more inseparable and increasingly severe. Any actions to unilaterally change the status quo by coercive measures, and how to deal with such attempts are grave and shared challenges to the international order. Moreover, the global challenges in sea, cyberspace etc are becoming even more serious.

Under such circumstances, Japan is resolved to promote freedom and democracy and uphold the rule of law in the international community under the banner of “Proactive Contribution to Peace” based on the principle of international cooperation, together with every country that shares fundamental values.

From this standpoint, Japan has been proposing the three principles for ensuring “the rule of law” at sea: e.i. (i) making and clarifying claims based on international law, (ii) not using force or coercion in trying to drive their claims, and (iii) seeking to settle disputes by peaceful means.

We must never condone the attempt to change the status quo by coercive measures. In this regard, Japan does not see the situation in Ukraine as “someone else’s problem”. Japan welcomes the election of the new president through a democratic process in Ukraine as a vital foundation for the stability of the country as well as for the region and the world at large.

The most important challenge in the months ahead is to ensure the political and economic stability of Ukraine. Japan highly values that the OSCE has offered a forum where all relevant countries gather and consult face-to-face regularly even in difficult situations, and has played a pivotal role in stabilizing Ukraine, and in the areas of confidence-building and promoting the rule of law.

In addition to Japan's economic assistance of 1.5 billion dollars to Ukraine, we have provided financial and personnel assistance to the OSCE in their dispatch of the Mission for promoting national dialogue in Ukraine, the Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the Presidential Election Monitoring Mission there. Japan intends to continue to proactively support these efforts by Ukraine and the OSCE.

In order to fully ensure the rule of law as well as to promote confidence-building and dispute-resolution through peaceful means, Asia and Europe need to mutually share their wisdom and lessons learnt and make proactive contributions together to these goals. The OSCE is an important partner for Japan in putting into practice the policy of “Proactive Contribution to Peace”. I would like to close my remark by assuring that Japan will further contribute in ensuring peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the international community hand in hand with the OSCE.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.