Time:
2010 Mar 18 12:30 - 14:00

Language:
The speech and Q & A will be in English.

Summary:
PROFESSIONAL LUNCHEON
Bernard Kouchner,
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the French Republic

Description:
"A Politician Who Broke Taboos"

France's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, will visit Japan on March 18th and 19th. It will be his first trip here after the 2008 G8 Foreign Ministers meeting in Kyoto.

Kouchner is widely admired for his support of humanitarian causes around the world. Born in Avignon to a Jewish doctor of Latvian origin and a Protestant mother, Kouchner, himself a medical doctor, cofounded "Médecins Sans Frontières" (MSF), known in English as "Doctors Without Borders."

He came to prominence in France in 1979 when he chartered a cargo ship, the "Ile de Lumiere" and took it to the South China Sea with a group of doctors to rescue Vietnamese boat people.

Kouchner began his public career as First Minister in Charge of Humanitarian Action in the late 1980's. He was Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United-Nations in Kosovo from 1999 to 2001. He has served as Health Minister in various cabinets and as Foreign Affairs Minister since 2007.

Kouchner implemented President Sarkozy's promise to prioritize human rights and fight global warming. He also helped repair relations between Paris and Washington after the Iraq War chill, using his experience in the U.S. as a lecturer at Harvard School of Public Health.

During this visit, he will meet Foreign Affairs Minister Katsuya Okada to discuss market access, the problem of children caught in parental conflicts, and various global issues including nonproliferation, climate change, development as well as regional policy issues. Not to be forgotten: EU-Japan relations.　At the FCCJ, he will talk about the European Union and how it deals with international challenges and crises.

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