THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
September 28, 2022 at 18:51 JST
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida meets on Sept. 27 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the State Guest House. (Naoko Kawamura)
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sept. 28 concluded his whirlwind series of meetings with foreign leaders who were in Tokyo to attend the state funeral for former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Kishida met with South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo for about 20 minutes on Sept. 28 and thanked him for the many kind condolence messages from South Koreans.
Han said their two nations formed an important partnership because both shared democratic values and a market economy. He also pointed out that youths of the two nations were eager to visit each other’s nation.
Chung Jin-suk, deputy speaker of the South Korean National Assembly, also attended the state funeral, a sign that South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol was eager to improve bilateral ties with Japan.
On Sept. 27, the day of the state funeral, Kishida held meetings with leaders from two of the nations making up the so-called Quad framework that was first proposed by Abe to counter advances being made by China. The Quad is made up of Japan, the United States, India and Australia.
Kishida agreed with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to further develop national security cooperation between their two nations.
Kishida told Albanese that he wanted to forge deeper bilateral ties to bring about a free and open Indo-Pacific (FOIP), which had been a goal of Abe’s.
Albanese said he wanted to work with Japan to further expand the FOIP concept since their two nations shared many common interests.
Three former Australian prime ministers, including Tony Abbott, also attended the state funeral and Kishida spoke with them as well after his meeting with Albanese.
In his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kishida said next year offers an excellent opportunity to work closely together since Japan will be hosting the Group of Seven summit while India is scheduled to host the Group of 20 summit.
The two leaders confirmed their sharing of the belief in the importance of peaceful resolution of conflicts.
The other leaders Kishida met with on Sept. 27 were European Council President Charles Michel, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president.
Kishida was to hold about 40 meetings in all with the visiting foreign dignitaries.
(Yuta Ogi contributed to this article.)
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