Earlier this month Stefan Löfven, Chair of the SIPRI Governing Board and former Swedish Prime Minister, visited Tokyo, Japan, for several events to foster SIPRI’s collaboration with different actors in the region.
Löfven was a keynote speaker at the 2024 Tokyo Conference on the theme of ‘Restoring Multilateral Cooperation in an Increasingly Fragmented and Multipolar World’. During his speech, Löfven highlighted the task of the United Nations High-Level Advisory Board for Effective Multilateralism that he co-chairs: to identify concrete, actionable recommendations that support a radical shift in international cooperation for the resolution of shared global challenges. He underlined the importance of restoring trust in multilateralism and of empowering equitable, effective collective security arrangements. Further, he stressed the need to uphold the worldwide consensus against the deployment of nuclear weapons and to endorse a universal no-first-use policy for all nations possessing nuclear capabilities.
Löfven also participated in a conversation event at the UN University in Tokyo, where participants discussed what is needed to navigate the polycrisis the world is currently facing.
During his visit to Japan, Löfven met with Kiyoto Tsuji, Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs, to discuss current developments in international peace and security, and the need to enhance multilateral cooperation, among other topics.