Tokyo, 14 September, /AJMEDIA/
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi are planning to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month, the country’s top diplomat said Tuesday.
Hayashi told a press conference that the two want to show up to the annual event of the United Nations “if various circumstances allow,” although he stopped short of elaborating on the details, including when they would visit.
Kishida is set to make a trip to the United States for five days from next Monday and deliver an address at the general debate of the General Assembly session, according to a source close to the matter.
On the sidelines of the U.N. gathering, Kishida is expected to hold bilateral and multinational talks with leaders of other nations, including a summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden, diplomatic sources said.
Hayashi said the planned trip would be a “meaningful opportunity” for Japan to “underscore the role of the United Nations and affirm cooperation with other nations,” at a time when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has put a spotlight on the dysfunction of the U.N. Security Council in addressing international disputes.
Japan is also eager to send a message about “nuclear disarmament and other challenges that the international community is facing,” Hayashi said, as Kishida is vocal about his ambition to realize a world free of nuclear weapons and will host a summit of the Group of Seven economies in the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima next year.
To increase momentum toward the entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Kishida, who represents a constituency in the Japanese western city, has promised to host a meeting of the CTBT Friends at the leaders’ level during the U.N. assembly period.
A high-ranking South Korean government official, meanwhile, has said the country is considering talks between President Yoon Suk Yeol and Kishida on the fringes of the U.N. session, with bilateral relations worsening due largely to wartime history.
