EPF President and Vice Chairman of the Georgian Parliament has sent a message of sympathy to the members of the Japan Parliamentarians Federation for Population and its secretariat

Dear colleagues at the Japanese Parliamentarian Forum on Population and APDA,

On behalf of the members of the Executive Committee of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development, we have been watching the recent events following the earthquake in Japan with horror and dismay. Whilst the final toll of the catastrophe in both human and economic terms is as yet unclear, it is evident that the impact of the event and its consequences will be felt for months and years to come – in both the untold human suffering it has caused, as well as the huge physical and economic destruction that the country will have to endure as a result.

As members of the international community we are not used to seeing a country that is so firmly established as one of the world’s most committed and responsible global citizens abroad being subjected to such trauma and hardship at home. But Japan is a country, culture and people that has been central to so much of the economic, technological and social progress that the world has known in recent decades. And for this reason we are confident that you will quickly muster both resources and resolve that will be more than enough to enable you to clear up the debris and move onwards and upwards out of the shadow of this catastrophe.

Japan has given the world so much in the past, and your continued contribution will be central to its future. Furthermore while the damage is indeed both profound and widespread at present, if we compare it to all that the country and culture have amassed in recent years and still possess, it is clear that no country could be better prepared to maintain its place as one of the world’s most developed and forward-looking countries, and to triumph in such adversity.

For this reason, now, in your most troubled hour, we offer you our deepest sympathy for the damage that the disaster has wrought; our condolences for the loved ones you have lost; and our very best wishes of strength and resolve for a speedy and complete recovery.

Yours a country that has embraced every opportunity to develop in the past; and we are sure that the healing and recovery process that is starting now will have the same positive effect now.

Yours, wishing you sympathy and strength,

George Tsereteli

President