Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will participate in the NATO summit in Vilnius and the EU-Japan summit in Brussels next week to discuss Japan-NATO cooperation, the situation in the Indo-Pacific region and security, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said on Friday.
"Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania, and Brussels, Belgium, from June 11-13. In Lithuania, he will take part in the NATO summit, and in Belgium, he will participate in the EU-Japan summit ... At the meeting this year that will take place amid the complicated situation with the guarantees of international security ... he will speak about the importance of strengthening Japan-NATO cooperation and making it more concrete," Matsuno said, adding that Kishida would hold bilateral meetings on the situation in the Indo-Pacific region on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
At the EU-Japan summit, issues of security, including economic security, and cooperation on digital development, climate change and other global and regional issues such as the Ukraine conflict will be discussed, the secretary added.
At the same time, the Japanese government is still working on Kishida's meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who is also expected to attend the NATO summit.
In late June, media reported, citing Kishida, that the prime minister would attend the NATO summit Vilnius from July 11-12 and the EU-Japan summit in Brussels on July 13.
Last year, Kishida became the first Japanese prime minister to personally attend a meeting of the NATO heads of state, in Madrid.