SM Goh Chok Tong to Visit Japan (17 - 23 Apr 2010)

Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong will visit Japan from 17 to 23 April 2010. SM will attend the InterAction Council (IAC)’s 28th Annual Plenary Meeting in Hiroshima from 18 to 20 April, before visiting Tokyo from 20 to 23 April 2010.

While in Tokyo, SM will meet Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Minister in charge of Administrative Reform Yoshito Sengoku. SM will also meet the President of the Liberal Democratic Party Sadakazu Tanigaki, former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori as well as other Japanese politicians, business leaders and academics.

The IAC was established as an “independent international organisation” in 1983, under the initiative of former Japanese PM Takeo Fukuda. Its goal is to “mobilise the experience, energy and international contacts of a group of statesmen who have held the highest office in their own countries”. SM was invited to join the IAC in November 2008 by its two Co-chairmen, former Canadian PM Jean Chrétien and former Swedish PM Ingvar Carlsson. This is the first Annual Plenary Meeting of the IAC that SM is attending and its focus will be on “Abolishing Nuclear Weapons”.

SM will be accompanied by Mrs Goh and senior officials from PMO and MFA. Members of Parliament Cynthia Phua and Liang Eng Hwa will join SM’s delegation in Tokyo.

* * * * *

PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE
SINGAPORE
16 APRIL 2010