Japan to launch $32 million anti-flu project at ASEM talks

+

TOKYO, May 22 Kyodo -
Japan will launch a $31.9 million, or 3.7 billion yen, project to fight the new
strain of influenza when foreign ministers from Asia and Europe hold a two-day
meeting from Monday in Hanoi, Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.
Under the project, Japan will store Tamiflu and other anti-flu medicines as
well as masks, gloves and other protective gear for 500,000 people at a
warehouse in Singapore, in preparation for an outbreak in Asia of the new H1N1
strain of influenza A, the officials said in a briefing.
Along with the new flu, the global financial crisis, climate change, energy
security and regional issues of common concern such as Afghanistan, Myanmar,
North Korea and Pakistan are likely to make the agenda for the foreign
ministerial session of the Asia-Europe Meeting, according to the officials.
Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone will represent Japan in a session Monday,
while State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Seiko Hashimoto will replace Nakasone
on the second day.
Nakasone, who will arrive in Hanoi on Saturday night, is scheduled to meet with
his Vietnamese counterpart Sunday before holding separate talks Monday with his
peers from South Korea, Lithuania, Myanmar and a group of four Central European
countries -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
==Kyodo
2009-05-22 23:09:44