The European Union and Japan should work together more closely on common international agendas, such as securing peace in the Middle East and reconstructing Afghanistan, to keep the the United States from taking a unilateral approach, EU Ambassador to Japan Ove Juul Jorgensen said Wednesday.
In a farewell news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Juul Jorgensen said that EU-Japan ties have dramatically changed from economic competition to strong partnership in both the economic and political fields in his four years in Japan as the world has become more interdependent.
"The EU and Japan have a shared responsibility to promote multilateralism," the ambassador said, referring to many actions on the part of Washington that have been viewed as unilateral moves, such as walking away from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming and the new International Criminal Court.