5 July 2010: Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada met with Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Patricia Espinosa Cantellano on 5 July 2010, to discuss, among other things, international climate change negotiations.

The two ministers agreed to cooperate in making the 16th session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 16), which will convene in Cancun, Mexico, in late 2010, a success. Espinosa stressed the importance of involving a broad range of parties, including least developed countries (LDCs), fragile nations such as island States and the private sector, and of early disbursement of pledged funding.

Okada stated that, on the basis of the Copenhagen agreement, a new comprehensive legal document should be adopted constituting a fair and effective international framework with the participation of all major countries. He stressed that reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks (REDD+) is one of the important agenda items, and announced that Japan will host a ministerial conference on forest preservation and climate change in October 2010. [Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan Press Release]