Kishida to visit N.Y. for U.N. General Assembly speech

Jiji Press

15:47 JST, September 17, 2022

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit New York from Monday to attend a U.N. General Assembly meeting, the government said Friday.

In an address during the general debate at the U.N. meeting Tuesday, Kishida will stress the importance of the rule of law in international society in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and call for the reform of the U.N. Security Council, which has been criticized for failing to perform its functions properly.

On Wednesday, the Japanese leader will host a summit-level meeting with the aim of putting into force early the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. With Kishida aiming to realize a world without nuclear weapons as his lifework, the meeting is seen reaffirming cooperation among countries that have already ratified the CTBT.

Kishida is a House of Representatives member elected from a constituency in Hiroshima, one of the two Japanese cities devastated by U.S. atomic bombs in August 1945, in the closing days of World War II.

Kishida may also hold a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in New York.

The upcoming visit “will be a significant opportunity [for Kishida] to actively disseminate our country’s thinking and confirm close cooperation with leaders from other nations at a time when the foundation of the international order is being shaken by the invasion of Ukraine [by Russia],” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference Friday.

Kishida is also slated to give a speech at the New York Stock Exchange. He will explain his signature policy of creating a new form of capitalism in order to attract investment in Japan.

It will be the first time in three years for Japan’s prime minister to deliver a speech in person during the general debate at the U.N. General Assembly session.

In 2020 and 2021, such speeches were made in video messages amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.