By Robert Bradley
On his recent visit to the Japanese city of Kyoto, President Lenin Moreno met with local authorities to discuss joint plans aimed at promoting tourism, preserving heritage architecture, and creating joint ventures for mutual benefit.
President Lenin Moreno
Kyoto was the last stop of the official trip undertaken to the Asian country by the Ecuadorian president, which took place on the anniversary of the 100-year-long anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Quito.
Moreno met in the former Japanese capital with the governor of the prefecture, Takatoshi Nishiwaki, with whom he discussed the implementation of future cooperative plans aimed at promoting mutual tourism and preserving the heritage of the two cities, according to the Ecuadorian national secretariat of communication. The city of Kyoto is one of the main tourist destinations in Japan, harboring over 1600 Buddhist temples, some going back to the early thirteenth century.
The city of Quito, the Chapoq Nan Andean Road System, and the Historical Centre of Santa Ana de Los Rios de Cuenca are all distinguished alongside the Prefecture of Kyoto with the distinction of being recognized by UNESCO as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
On the occasion of the centenary of bilateral relations, the Ecuadorian government issued a postal stamp on August 13 with the image of the Kinkaku-ji temple, located in Kyoto and better known as the “Golden Temple”, and another one that alludes to the island sanctuary of Miyajima, in the prefecture of Hiroshima. The Ecuadorian delegation delivered both stamps to the governor of Kyoto as a sign of friendship, before the celebration of a dinner offered by the Japanese Foreign Ministry that put the pin on the official agenda of Moreno in Japan.
The center posts of the trip by President Moreno was to strengthen diplomatic relations and focusing on specific areas of cooperation regarding economic and commercial matters, as well as heritage preservation and tourism.
Moreno met on Wednesday with the Japanese emperors, Akihito and Michiko, and with the country’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and attended a meeting with Japanese business representatives along with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister José Valencia and the Minister of Economy and Finance, Richard Martínez.
