Press Conference by Prime Minster Kishida Regarding His Visits to France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America

(On Prime Minister Kishida's objectives and what he is determined to achieve in terms of the G7 Japanese presidency during this round of visits and on the content and desired outcome of his upcoming discussions with President Biden)

First of all, from now I will be visiting France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. I plan to speak candidly with each of my G7 counterparts and have frank discussions that further deepen our personal relationships of trust.

I intend to affirm our common understanding regarding the current situation, including that we are now in a severe security environment, with Russian aggression against Ukraine among other factors, and that the global economy is also facing the possibility of downside risk. Upon confirming that with the other leaders, I will lay out Japan's way of thinking as the G7 presidency and reaffirm our cooperation going forward. I believe it is critical for us to jointly endorse the basic stance of fully defending the rule of law and a rules-based international order.

It will also be my first trip to Washington, DC since taking office as prime minister. The Japan-U.S. summit meeting I will have with President Biden at that time will go beyond sitting down face to face with him as the presidency of the G7. We will also discuss the fact that Japan recently revised three security-related documents, including our National Security Strategy, and that we clearly laid out concrete measures for the reinforcement of our defense capabilities, which serve as the backing to those revisions. This Japan-U.S. leaders meeting will be held immediately after these things were decided.

I believe it will be an invaluable occasion for confirming once again our close cooperation with regard to our positions of reinforcing the solid Japan-U.S. Alliance and also working as partners to realize a Free and Open Indo-Pacific. I regard our meeting as a superb opportunity to convey to the international community these stances shared by Japan and the U.S.