SPEECH BY PARLIAMENTARY VICE-MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MS. ERI ARFIYA

TOKYO, June 9 -- Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs issued text of the following speech:

Ambassador Dalton, Excellencies, Governor Yuzaki, Governor Oishi, Distinguished guests,

I am ERI Arfiya, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. On behalf of the Government of Japan, I sincerely welcome the convening of "the Seminar on the 80th Memorial of the Atomic Bombings and the Role of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone".

I would like to commend the efforts of all those involved in this Seminar organized by GRULAC in collaboration with HOPe, in particular, Ambassador Dalton, the President of GRULAC and the Ambassador of El Salvador to Japan.

In addition to a longstanding friendship and cooperati...