Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to Visit Indonesia, India from Tuesday

Jiji Press

16:19 JST, September 2, 2023

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will visit Indonesia and India for seven days from Tuesday to attend a series of summit meetings, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said at a press conference Friday.

In Jakarta on Wednesday, Kishida will meet with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders.

He aims to affirm cooperation with his ASEAN counterparts in realizing a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” ahead of a Japan-ASEAN summit to be held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of friendship and cooperative ties in Tokyo on Dec. 16-18.

The top leaders of Japan, China, South Korea and the 10 ASEAN nations are also scheduled to hold a meeting in the Indonesian capital on Wednesday.

The following day, Kishida will discuss regional issues at the East Asia Summit, which comprises 18 countries including Japan, the United States, China, Russia, India, South Korea and the ASEAN states.

Furthermore, he will take part in a two-day summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies in New Delhi from Sept. 9, which is slated to cover chiefly food security and ways to promote digitalization in economies affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As Japan is the chair of the Group of Seven major democracies this year, Kishida aims to reflect the results of the G-7 summit in Hiroshima in May in an outcome document to be adopted at the G-20 gathering.

Kishida is seeking to have talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang during the trip. But it is uncertain whether the meeting will take place at a time when China is strongly protesting Japan’s release into the ocean of treated water from Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Meanwhile, he is scheduled to meet separately with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will host the Japan-ASEAN summit and the G-20 summit, respectively.