Ambassador Ahmed Nehad Abdel-Latif, Director General of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), visited Japan from 23 to 30 July on an invitation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. The visit aimed to reinforce cooperation between the Center and a number of Japanese institutions.

The visit included meetings with the Assistants Foreign Minister for African and Arab Affairs in the presence of Ambassador Mohamed Abu Baker, Ambassador of Egypt to Japan. Ambassador Abdel-Latif also met with members of the Japanese House of Representatives, senior officials at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as well as a number of experts from think tanks and research centres.

In addition, CCCPA’s Director General visited the Japan Peacekeeping Training and Research Center (JPC)- Ministry of Defence and the Hiroshima Peacebuilders Center (HPC). He also visited the city of Hiroshima, which witnessed the dropping of the first atomic bomb, becoming a symbol of the pursuit of world peace and a world free of nuclear weapons.

In his meetings with Japanese officials, CCCPA’s Director General provided an overview of the Center’s various programs and activities, which aim to build the capacities of developing countries in the fields of peacekeeping and peacebuilding. 

He expressed his appreciation for the Government of Japan’s long-standing partnership with both CCCPA and the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development.

Ambassador Abdel-Latif added that he looked forward to further strengthening the partnership to effectively address the changing and rapidly evolving landscape fraught with new risks and overlapping crises that face peace and security.

Japanese officials praised Egypt’s key role in peacekeeping, peacebuilding and conflict resolution regionally and internationally. They also commended CCCPA’s work and stressed their keenness to enhance cooperation with the Center, in the context of the two countries’ efforts to advance multilateral action and collective security, and their endeavours to achieve peace, security and development in Africa and the Middle East, including through the operationalization of the Humanitarian Development-Peace Nexus (HDPN).