JCP Chair Shii meets with Nicaraguan foreign minister

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Chair Shii meets with Nicaraguan foreign minister

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on January 18 held talks with visiting Foreign Minister of Nicaragua Samuel Santos at the JCP head office.

Santos started the conversation by asking Shii about the recently-held JCP 25th Congress and expressed the hope that the JCP will keep moving forward.

Welcoming the minister, Shii recalled that last summer in Tokyo he met Miguel D’Escoto, then U.N. General Assembly president and ex-Nicaraguan foreign minister, and agreed to promote joint efforts to work to establish a world without nuclear weapons. Shii also stressed the need to start international negotiations aimed at concluding a treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Santos in response said, “I share the same view for the need to launch international negotiations.”

Shii touched on the recent statement calling for the removal of foreign military bases issued by the Bolivarian Alternative for the America (ALBA) of which Nicaragua is a member state.

Santos said that U.S. bases in Latin America are playing a dangerous role.

Shii and Santos also exchanged views on the struggles against U.S. bases in Okinawa and in Latin America.

Referring to the fact that the Ortega government once lost in an election held near the end of the U.S. interventionist war but returned to power with majority support after making tenacious efforts to build a solid foundation of support, Shii said, “It was a significant event for democracy.”

Santos, however, said that the Nicaraguan government is worried about another intervention in the form of anti-Sandinista campaigns being carried out repeatedly by the mass media.

- Akahata, January 19, 2010