Source: Saba News Agency
On Wednesday, Sheikh Othman Mujalli, a member of the Presidential Leadership Council, met with Hirofumi Miyake, the Assistant Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Director-General of the Middle East and Africa Bureau at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kazuhiro Higashi, the Charge d’affaires of the Japanese Embassy in our country, and Kenoshita Toru, the Yemen file officer at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
During the meeting, they discussed the bilateral relations between the two friendly countries and the prospects for their development.
Mujalli praised Japan’s developmental and supportive role for the Yemeni people, indicating that there are clear footprints of Japan throughout Yemen, with many projects in various fields.
He added: “We currently and in the future need to secure maritime routes, which is a collective responsibility to protect the movement and freedom of global trade in international waters and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea,” emphasizing the necessity of cooperation to curb the aggression of the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi group.
Mujalli also highlighted the destructive role of Iran in Yemen and the region, threatening maritime navigation through enabling the Houthi militia and supplying them with advanced weapons and ballistic missiles to attack ships, explaining that these hostile actions threaten the interests of the region, the world, and countries of East Asia, including Japan, as one of the largest oil importers in East Asia.
In turn, the Japanese Assistant Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed his country’s supportive stance towards legitimacy, provision of humanitarian aid, capacity building, and human resource development, reflecting the depth of Yemeni-Japanese relations.
