JCP Chair Shii meets with Nicaraguan Ambassador Arana

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

JCP Chair Shii meets with Nicaraguan Ambassador Arana

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on August 28 met with Nicaraguan Ambassador to Japan Saul Arana Castellon at the JCP head office in Tokyo.

Arana spoke about the Bolivarian Alternative for the America (ALBA), an initiative called for in 2001 by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for the regional integration of Latin America as part of efforts to resolve energy, food, and other pressing problems.

Referring to Honduras which has just joined the ALBA, Shii said that this shows that efforts to achieve change for the region’s independent development are increasing.

He also stressed that in tackling various regional and global issues, the urgent task is to work to achieve a democratic reform of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which, together with the United States, have been imposing neo-liberalism on the world.

Shii and Arana also discussed increasing relations between Nicaragua’s governing Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) party and the Japanese Communist Party through developing common efforts to strengthen the friendship between the two countries as well as to defend peace and abolish nuclear weapons.

JCP Vice Chair Ogata Yasuo and JCP International Bureau Deputy Director Kanda Yonezo also attended the meeting. ? Akahata, August 29, 2008