Tokyo, 24 November, /AJMEDIA/
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is considering visiting the United States and four Latin American nations — Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Argentina — in January, government sources said.
Hayashi plans to attend a “two-plus-two” ministerial security meeting with the United States in Washington, after holding a public debate session on “the rule of law” at the U.N. Security Council in New York as Japan holds the rotating monthly presidency of the council for that month, according to the sources.
It will be the first two-plus-two talks between Tokyo and Washington in about a year, with Hayashi and Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada set to meet their U.S. counterparts Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin.
The gathering will follow a planned revision to Japan’s National Security Strategy. The nation’s long-term security and diplomacy policy guidelines are slated to be updated along with two other key defense documents by the end of the year.
During his planned first trip to Latin America, Hayashi is expected to call on his counterparts for cooperation in maintaining and strengthening the international order, given China’s growing maritime assertiveness and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the sources said.
Hayashi also aims to establish a relationship with the new Brazilian administration under President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who will take office on Jan. 1, and agree with Brazil to work together in promoting U.N. reforms, according to the sources.
Forming the Group of Four alongside Germany and India, Japan and Brazil have long aspired to become permanent members of the 15-member U.N. Security Council. Japan and Brazil will also serve as nonpermanent members of the council in 2023.
In Mexico, the largest base for Japanese companies expanding into Latin America, Hayashi will exchange views with political and business leaders on how to deepen bilateral economic ties, the sources said.
