Japan’s Hayashi meets with 5 more foreign ministers

Jiji Press

February 12, 2021

LIVERPOOL, England (Jiji Press) — Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi on Saturday met with his counterparts of five more countries individually on the sidelines of the ongoing Group of Seven meeting in Liverpool, England.

At his meeting with Annalena Baerbock of Germany, Hayashi offered his congratulations on the launch of new Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration.

The two foreign ministers confirmed their countries’ cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region in security and other fields.

Hayashi met with Jean-Yves Le Drian of France and agreed to work together to make the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris a success.

Le Drian expressed a wish to strengthen his country’s collaboration with Japan through a ministerial meeting on the Indo-Pacific region that France plans to hold in February 2022 as the holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency.

Hayashi held talks with Luigi Di Maio of Italy, Marise Payne of Australia and Melanie Joly of Canada. They agreed on cooperation to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

The sessions followed Hayashi’s meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also on Saturday.

At the two-day meeting of the G-7 foreign ministers from Saturday, participants confirmed their readiness to take strong action to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, according to the British government.