A major symposium examining East Asian regional cooperation in the fight against AIDS and other communicable diseases was held on June 30, 2005, in Tokyo in commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Kyushu-Okinawa G8 Summit. At the 2000 Okinawa Summit, leading members of the international community first publicly acknowledged the need to mobilize significant resources to address the spread of communicable diseases, and this idea eventually led to the establishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

More than 100 government, business, philanthropic, academic, and civil society leaders from around the world took part in the symposium, which was organized by JCIE/FGFJ; the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Funding for the conference was generously provided by the Open Society Institute, the United Nations Foundation, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his address, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged greater international cooperation in battling the spread of AIDS in Asia and announced that Japan is dramatically raising its commitment to the Global Fund to US$500 million. Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who chairs the FGFJ, and Tommy G. Thompson, honorary chair of the Global Fund and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, called for more intensive and widespread societal engagement in responding to the challenges of communicable diseases in Asia. Meanwhile, Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem and other top leaders commented on a series of research papers analyzing country-level responses to the spread of AIDS in Asia and explored ways to promote greater regional cooperation in tackling the spread of communicable diseases.

For more information on this event, please visit the FGFJ website.