Kishida to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia from Friday

TOKYO

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will make a four-day trip from Friday to visit Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, the Japanese government said Thursday.

Kishida will attend Japan’s first-ever summit involving five Central Asian nations in Kazakhstan on Friday with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, to “further deepen the partnership and mutual cooperation that we have built,” the Foreign Ministry said. China and Russia are influential in the region.

A joint declaration will be issued at the summit, and a new initiative focused on cooperation over decarbonization, strengthening supply chains and cultivating human resources will be launched, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told a press conference.

Since the start of a dialogue framework with the five former Soviet republics in 2004, Japan has continued to engage with them at foreign ministerial and working levels.

The resource-rich states in Central Asia have taken a cautious stance toward Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. Tokyo has imposed economic sanctions on Moscow in lockstep with other Group of Seven members.

Meanwhile, China’s economic clout in the region has been expanding through its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.

Kishida is also set to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the five countries, while business forums are scheduled to take place both in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to encourage private investment.

In Ulaanbaatar on Monday, Kishida will meet with Mongolian President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, respectively, to “affirm progress in multi-layered cooperation based on a special strategic partnership,” the ministry said.

Mongolia is known to have played a role as a mediator in helping to resolve the issue of abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Japan has no diplomatic ties with North Korea and has often sought cooperation with the landlocked nation.