David Lisnard stated that he had given a new impetus to decentralized cooperation between Cannes and Shizuoka during a meeting with the mayor of the Japanese city, Takashi Nanba, in the presence of the Japanese ambassador to France, Hideo Suzuki, and the consul of Japan in Marseille, Mitsuaki Mizuno. He believed that France and Japan shared democratic, demographic, ecological, economic, geopolitical, scientific, and technological challenges, as well as major strategic interests. According to him, Japan's security engaged that of France, which was also a Pacific nation, with territories, maritime spaces, and interests to protect in New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna. Lisnard also mentioned freedom of navigation, security of supplies, and regional stability in the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and on maritime routes in the Indo-Pacific. He called for strengthening Franco-Japanese cooperation in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotics, quantum technologies, space, and nuclear energy, particularly by bringing researchers and companies closer together and developing production capacities. He presented the ties between Cannes and its twin city, Shizuoka, as a local contribution to sovereignty and to national and international dynamics. Finally, he described Japan as a pole of stability and called on democracies to tighten their ties in the face of the rise of authoritarian approaches. #CoopérationInternationale #AmitiéFrancoJaponaise #Technologie (translated)
