• During the US visit, Kishida is planning to hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as soon as Thursday local time

TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio left Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on a government plane Wednesday night to attend a summit meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.

“I want to discuss the promotion of free and open trade and the digital economy, as well as the fight against climate change, and present Japan’s positions,” Kishida told reporters at the prime minister’s official residence ahead of the departure.

During the US visit, Kishida is planning to hold a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping as soon as Thursday local time.

Kishida said a summit with Xi has not been decided yet, but added, “I want to communicate in various ways to maintain constructive and stable relations.”

The last Kishida-Xi meeting took place in Thailand in November last year.

In the envisaged meeting with Xi, Kishida is expected to urge China to lift its ban on imports of Japanese fishery products, which was imposed after Japan began releasing tritium-containing treated water from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan into the sea.

Kishida will also hold bilateral talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on Thursday to confirm their countries’ efforts to strengthen their relations.

On Friday, the Japanese and South Korean leaders will attend a symposium on cutting-edge technologies at Stanford University. They are expected to announce a plan to jointly procure hydrogen and ammonia, which are expected as next-generation energy sources.

Kishida is also seeking to hold a meeting with US President Joe Biden.

At the APEC summit, the prime minister is expected to call for the promotion of free and open trade and investment. Attention will be paid to whether participating countries can find common ground on issues such as climate change and strengthening supply chains amid growing protectionist moves against a backdrop of US-China friction and Russia’s prolonged invasion of Ukraine. They will seek to adopt a leaders’ declaration.

Kishida will also attend a summit meeting of 14 member countries, including Japan and the United States, of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, or IPEF, before returning home on Sunday.

JIJI Press