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3rd Day of the Prime Minister's Visit to Europe
(The Italian Republic)


Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Photograph of the Prime Minister delivering an address at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security Photograph of the Prime Minister delivering an address at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security Photograph of Prime Minister Fukuda shaking hands with Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy
Photograph of Prime Minister Fukuda shaking hands with President Sarkozy of France Photograph of Prime Minister Fukuda shaking hands with Prime Minister Berlusconi of Italy

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Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda delivered an address at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security, convened in Rome, the capital of the Italian Republic, the third destination of his tour.

In his address, the Prime Minister spoke about Japan's emergency responses to the current sharp rise in food prices: an emergency food aid package of roughly 100 million US dollars to be disbursed by July of this year, to add to the approximately 85 million dollars of food aid Japan had already distributed within 2008. Prime Minister Fukuda announced that Japan had also provided 10 million dollars of assistance this year to farmers in poverty to boost food production, and it will distribute another roughly 50 million dollars. The Prime Minister also made it clear that Japan is prepared to release in the near future over 300,000 tons of imported rice held by the Japanese government, and called on other countries to release to the international markets their stockpiles of food and to refrain from instituting restrictions on agricultural exports and other measures. Prime Minister Fukuda furthermore explained Japan's medium- to long-term measures, saying that Japan will engage in efforts to contribute to stabilization of demand and supply of food in the world market through promotion of domestic agricultural reform and increasing its food self-sufficiency rate.

In the afternoon, Prime Minister Fukuda held talks with Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, at the venue of the High-Level Conference, and in the evening with Mr. Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, at the Prime Minister's Office.

At the meetings, the leaders exchanged opinions on major issues to be discussed at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit -- the world economy issue, including rising oil prices, and environment and climate change issues -- among other topics. They agreed to enhance coordination and cooperation for the success of the G8 Summit.

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