TIRANA, Nov 17 /ATA/The Ambassador of Japan to Albania H.E. Mr. Mitsuyuki TAKADA and the Executive Director of the Western Balkans Fund (WBF) Mr. Gjergj MURRA signed a memorandum of understanding on the project named “FIRE – Promoting culture of tolerance and mutual respect within two regions.” This project aims to counter hate speech and defamation which are serious obstacles to promotion of regional cooperation in the Western Balkans and Visegrad regions.
Japan will provide €30.000 to support the Western Balkans Fund to organize a conference that will address ways to mobilize the stakeholders of the two regions to combat offensive language targeting ethnic, religious, sexual minorities, immigrants and negatively influence the regional stability.
Japan’s support comes in the framework of the Western Balkans Cooperation Initiative, launched by then Prime Minister of Japan, Abe Shinzo, in January 2018. This initiative aims to support the socio-economic reforms of the Western Balkans towards the EU accession and to facilitate ethnic reconciliation by promoting cooperation in the Western Balkans. In this context Japan attaches great importance to the cooperation with the Western Balkan’s Fund, as an organization that shares our common goal of strengthening cooperation and advancing the integration of the region into the European Union. Japan has twice supported the Western Balkan’s Fund with the recent donation of €44.000 back in January 2021, when the Embassy supported a project assessing the impact of COVID-19 on sustainability of Civil Society Organizations operating in the Western Balkan region.
This time, the International Visegrad Fund (IVF) has agreed to join efforts in this project, bringing forth the experiences and challenges of the region. At the 7th “V4 plus Japan” Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which was held during the visit of then Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, Mr. Motegi Toshimitsu to Poland on May 7, the ministers confirmed the recent major achievements of “V4 plus Japan” cooperation, including assistance for the Western Balkans. They agreed to engage in close communication among their embassies in the Western Balkans towards the formulation of new cooperation projects. In this context, this project is an excellent example of Japan’s and V4 cooperation in the Western Balkans.
At the meeting held before the signing ceremony, Ambassador Takada and Mr. Murra spoke about the situation in the Western Balkans region, with the Ambassador confirming the commitment of the Government of Japan to further support the region and finding new concrete possibilities for cooperation with the Western Balkans and the Visegrad region.
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