DOHA: Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida has said that the official talks session he held with His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani were very successful, and culminated in the announcement of upgrading the level of bilateral relations between the two countries to the level of strategic partnership.
In a press conference held at the end of his visit to Doha, the Japanese Prime Minister affirmed his country's determination to expand cooperation with Qatar to several areas, including diplomacy, security, infrastructure, investment, culture and academic exchange.
He added that the Japanese-Qatari relations witnessed great development recently, as cooperation went beyond the boundaries of traditional energy to many fields to include, for example, the uses of renewable energy such as the transition to solar energy and reliance on carbon-free energy, and the development of areas of cooperation in infrastructure.
He noted the effective role played by Qatar to ensure the security and stability of the Middle East and Africa, stressing in this regard that Japan has developed a framework for consultation and multi-level dialogue between the two countries to include the strategic dialogue of the foreign ministers of the two countries and many other channels.
He added that it is through these channels that the outcomes of his visit to Doha will be followed up, to move towards tangible projects for cooperation in several fields.
The Japanese PM described his visit to Qatar, which was part of a Gulf tour, as successful, especially since it was his first visit as prime minister, as his last visit to the Gulf region was in 2015 when he was the foreign minister.
He pointed out that, during the last G7 summit in Hiroshima, the seven countries stressed with their international partners the importance of commitment to establishing a free and open world order based on the rule of law, and this principle was also emphasized with the leaders of the concerned countries in the Gulf region during this visit.
He said that talks during his Gulf tour dealt with how to deal with challenges in the energy sector, which is at the core of Japanese-Middle Eastern relations, in terms of facing the challenges of unstable global energy supplies due to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, where the matter was discussed from an in-depth global perspective. He pointed out that he sensed a strong desire from the Gulf countries to transform into carbon-free energy exporters, as well as diversify their economies and industries. He also said that consolidating the powers of the Gulf and Japan, oil producers in the Middle-East will become a hub for producing clean energy and exporting Carbon-free energy. He explained that the countries of Asia and Africa are facing a crisis related to the growing need to rely on carbon-free energy and enable them to choose different paths to rely on carbon-free energy, which would contribute to global security and prosperity.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister of Japan said that his Gulf tour was also an opportunity to discuss trade and economic cooperation, as he, for the first time as Prime Minister, accompanied an economic delegation of more than 100 executives and business leaders in Japan to hold talks related to laying the foundations for future cooperation in many fields, strengthening government partnership as well as private sector partnerships.
