On April 11, Admiral Osama Rabie, the Chairman of Suez Canal Authority, received Noke Masaki, the Japanese ambassador in Cairo and Saito Hideaki, Deputy Director-General for Engineering Affairs of the Maritime Bureau at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan.
The visit aims at expressing appreciation to Egyptian Government for “its great efforts for re-floating and dislodging M/V EVER GIVEN in addition to exchange views on strengthening bilateral cooperation”, according to a statement issued by Japanese Embassy.
During the meeting, Ambassador Noke said that the Suez Canal is a very important sea lane for maritime logistics in the world and praised the Suez Canal Authority’s efforts for early resumption of vessel passage on the Canal, the statement added.
Mr Saito, meanwhile, expressed his gratitude to the Authority for taking great works day and night for M/V EVER GIVEN to be re-floated and dislodged. He also remarked that thanks to the Authority’s efforts, the grounding of the ship was dislodged, which was a very appreciated result for Japanese ship owners as well as Japanese shipping industry, which accounts for 7 per cent of the vessels passing through the Suez Canal.
For his part, Admiral Rabie expressed appreciation for this courtesy visit. He explained details of this accident and the Authority’s emergency work for the early resumption, the statement said.
Admiral Rabie added that “he is proud of the Authority’s hard work against this complicated crisis”, the statement added.
