Japan and V4 pledge cooperation

Monday, 17 June 2013

A summit meeting of the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Japan has concluded with the prime ministers promising ongoing cooperation in fields including nuclear energy.

The Prime Ministers meet (Image: Government of Japan)

The four central European nations make up the Visegrad Group, also known as the V4. The 16 June Warsaw summit, attended by the countries' prime ministers, commemorated the tenth anniversary of V4-Japan cooperation.

In a joint statement, the parties expressed their intention to further strengthen their ties in a range of areas, as well as recognising the "attractive opportunities" represented by the V4's markets for Japanese companies.

The participants formally expressed their "great interest in deepening mutual cooperation" in nuclear energy, environment, energy saving and renewable energy, while Japan reaffirmed its "duty" to contribute to worldwide nuclear safety by sharing knowledge and lessons learned from the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

With the exception of Poland, all of the V4 countries have currently operating nuclear power plants. All four nations have plans for nuclear new-build in the future, offering potential market opportunities for Japanese nuclear companies.

The summit was attended by prime ministers Petr Nečas (Czech Republic), Viktor Orbán (Hungary), Shinzo Abe (Japan), Donald Tusk (Poland) and Robert Fico (Slovakia).

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News