【Photo Diary】 (2) Visit to Norway and Portugal
Published on March 17, 2023
I would like to share with you some of the photographs taken during my visit to Norway and Portugal between February 27 and March 3, 2023, as chairman of The Nippon Foundation and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination.
[February 28, Bergen and Oslo, Norway, and Lisbon, Portugal]
[March 1, Lisbon, Portugal]
The three-day event brought together a total of some 1,500 participants from across the world, representing the widest cross-section of the ocean community from business and finance to governments, national and international policymakers, civil society and academia.
This year’s summit was designed to steer progress by addressing the greatest challenges facing the ocean: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, while retaining the focus on marine industries including shipping, fishing, aquaculture, energy and tourism.
It will be held in Lisbon again in 2024 and then in Tokyo in 2025.
Between May 19 and 21, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will host a G7 summit in his hometown of Hiroshima, western Japan, one of the two Japanese cities that were atom-bombed during World War II. Discussions will naturally focus on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Mr. Kishida is expected to pitch his vision of a world without nuclear weapons amid concern that Russia could use one against Ukraine in the war.
But at the same time, I sincerely hope that Japan, as an ocean state, will put ocean issues high on the G7 agenda, as they will have a major impact on the future of humanity.
(End)
The text of my speech at the World Ocean Summit in Lisbon on March 1 can be seen here.