Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Opening Statement by Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga

Circumstances permitting, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from Saturday, September 6 to Monday, September 8, where he is scheduled to hold summit meetings with H.E. Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and H.E. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. The visit to Bangladesh will be the first by a serving Japanese Prime Minister in 14 years. On the occasion of Prime Minister Hasina’s visit to Japan in May this year, Prime Minister Abe received an invitation to visit Bangladesh in the near future. Through this visit the Government seeks to set firmly in place the “Japan-Bangladesh Comprehensive Partnership” that was launched at the time of Prime Minister Hasina’s visit to Japan. The visit to Sri Lanka will be the first by a serving Japanese Prime Minister in 24 years. Through this visit the Government aims to further deepen and expand bilateral relations in a broad range of areas, including maritime issues, given that like Japan, Sri Lanka is a maritime country and is located on Indian Ocean sea lanes. Representatives of more than 30 companies, including small and medium enterprises, involved in such businesses as infrastructure and food products are scheduled to accompany the Prime Minister on the visit. The Government expects that economic relations between Japan and the two countries will be further enhanced as a result.

Q&As

• The Japan-India summit meeting

(Abridged)

REPORTER: Today the Japan-India summit meeting is being held and I expect that the two sides will confirm such issues as the strengthening of bilateral economic partnerships. To what degree do you think strengthening economic partnership with India will positively impact Japanese companies?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: Today the Prime Minister is scheduled to hold a summit meeting and host a dinner banquet in honor of H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, who is in Japan on an Official Visit. The two leaders are scheduled to discuss the strengthening of relations in a variety of sectors, including politics, security, economics and economic cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. India is the largest democracy in the world and is making great strides in economic development. The Government seeks to use the opportunity provided by Prime Minister Modi’s visit to further expedite the development of the Japan-India relationship, which is blessed with the largest potential for development of any bilateral relationship anywhere in the world. In particular, Prime Minister Modi is actively advancing measures to promote foreign direct investment and infrastructure development, an economic policy which is complementary to the policies of Abenomics, which seek to promote the international development of Japanese companies. We will seek to contribute to Asian growth through such a mutually complementary relationship.