 |
| Ambassador Monji and Col Sato during a reception held yesterday |
Colonel Kiyoshi Sato, of the Japan Air Self Defence Force, has been appointed as the non-resident defence attache to the Japanese embassy.
“It is timely to welcome Col Sato to my embassy this year, 2012 - which is the 40th anniversary of Japan-Qatar diplomatic relations and both countries have agreed to diversify and expand their relations beyond the economy, especially in the field of energy, to cover other areas including defence,” Japanese ambassador Kenjiro Monji said at an event, held to observe the Self Defence Force Day, which falls on July 1.
He said the co-operation between Qatar and Japan in the area of security and defence had been gaining importance.
“There have been more co-operation between our defence authorities. I’ll just mention some examples: the acceptance by the Qatari side of the SDF trainees of Arabic language; the exchange of students between Qatar’s Military College and Japan’s National Defence Academy; high-level bilateral exchanges and staff-level talks in Tokyo and Doha; and participation of Japan in seminars and exercises hosted by Qatar.”
Ambassador Monji mentioned that currently both sides were working hard to make a memorandum of defence exchanges in order to promote and facilitate their defence exchanges and Japanese side was looking forward to its early conclusion.