Press Conference by the Chief Cabinet Secretary (Excerpt)

Q&As

REPORTER: A Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting between Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) will be held tomorrow, the 24th. Chinese government vessels have repeatedly intruded into the territorial waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands. I understand that efforts to finalize the details continued to be made until the last minute. Can you please tell us what Japan expects from the meeting or what Japan wishes to assert if anything?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: The Eighth Japan-China-ROK Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be held tomorrow, the 24th. Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida will serve as Chair, and from China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi and from the ROK, Minister of Foreign Affairs Yun Byung-se will be attending. At the meeting, discussions will take place on the current status and future of trilateral cooperation projects in a wide range of areas and their directions, and exchanges of views will take place regarding the regional and international situations. We consider it extremely significant that the foreign ministers of the three countries who play a key role in this region gather together to hold frank exchanges of views. We strongly hope that the foreign ministers’ meeting will deliver outcomes in a broad range of areas, including the economy, the environment, disaster risk reduction, and youth exchanges, and generate significant momentum towards the successful holding of the Japan-China-ROK Summit to be held by the end of this year. We are now making the final arrangements with both countries to also hold a Japan-China foreign ministers’ meeting and a Japan-ROK foreign ministers’ meeting on this occasion.

REPORTER: I have a related question. Will Japan raise as an issue the intrusion into the territorial waters surrounding the Senkaku Islands by Chinese government vessels?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: In any case, we anticipate outstanding issues between two countries to be taken up as appropriate at the bilateral meeting.

(Abridged)

REPORTER: I would like to go back a little bit to what we were discussing earlier. Can you please explain what specifically Japan wishes to discuss with China at the Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, what achievements Japan expects, and also about Prime Minister Abe’s visit to China including the G20 Summit?

CHIEF CABINET SECRETARY SUGA: First of all, the trilateral meeting originally began as a meeting primarily to promote cooperation projects among the three countries. This nature of the meeting remains unchanged with respect to the upcoming foreign ministers’ meeting. We expect that in this context the meeting would serve as an opportunity to discuss the various issues of interest to each country, including the regional and international situations.