TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed to establish a new Japan-based affiliate of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Japanese news agency Kyodo reported on Thursday.
They are hoping to have the new organisation set up in time for the G7 Hiroshima summit scheduled for May 2023, the report added, citing multiple unnamed foreign ministry sources.
The new organisation would aim to achieve universal health coverage, as well as work to strengthen the medical systems of developing countries and create an international framework to help prevent the spread of infections, Kyodo said.
Guterres was in Japan this week and spoke to Kishida on the sidelines a ceremony marking the 77th year since an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
(Reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
