Presidents Iohannis begins visit to Japan, where Declaration establishing the Strategic Partnership will be signed

President Klaus Iohannis began his official visit to Japan on Monday with a meeting with the president of the Chamber of Councillors, Hidehisa Otsuji, at the headquarters of the Upper House of Japan's National Diet.

"My delegation and I are starting an extremely important visit today. This is the first official meeting we have. Tomorrow we have extremely important meetings. I will be received at His Majesty the Emperor, and together with the delegation we will have a meeting together with the Prime Minister (of the government of Japan, ed. n.), during which several documents will be signed, the most important being the document that will consecrate the raising of our bilateral relations at the level of Strategic Partnership," the president said at the beginning of the meeting.

For his part, the president of the Chamber of Councillors stressed the importance of deepening the bilateral relations between the two countries.

"On the occasion of your visit to Japan, we want the bilateral relations between Romania and Japan to deepen," Hidehisa Otsuji said.

The Japanese official also spoke about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and said there was still a nuclear threat. He appreciated the support given by Romania to Ukraine, recalling the Ukrainian refugees who were received by our country.

The president of the House of Councillors also pointed out that there are military tensions and the risk of using nuclear weapons in the East Asian region.

"We want to talk together to strengthen and improve collaboration in the military field as well," Hidehisa Otsuji said.

The delegation of president Klaus Iohannis includes the minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, the minister of Development, Cseke Attila, the presidential advisers Luminita Odobescu, Daniela Barsan, Cosmin Marinescu, the ambassador of Romania to Japan, Ovidiu Dranga.

The president will also have a meeting with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hiroyuki Hosoda, at his residence on Monday.

On Tuesday, the president will be received by the Emperor of Japan, Naruhito, and the Empress of Japan, Masako, at the Imperial Palace. Also, president Klaus Iohannis will meet, at the headquarters of the Government of Japan, with the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, whom he will have official talks with and will sign the Joint Declaration establishing the Strategic Partnership between Romania and Japan. The two officials will then hold joint press statements. The president will also participate in a working dinner on this occasion.

The establishment of the Strategic Partnership with Japan will mark the advancement of the Romanian-Japanese cooperation at the highest level on three key dimensions: foreign policy and dialogue on security issues, economic and development cooperation, respectively cooperation in the fields of culture, science and technology, innovation, research and development. This is the second strategic partnership with an Asian state, after the one with South Korea.

On the occasion of the Monday to Wednesday visit, a memorandum will be signed between the Ministry of Finance, EximBank Romania and the Bank of Japan for Cooperation (JBIC), as well as a memorandum of understanding between ELI-NP Magurele, the Japanese company Okamoto Optics and the Institute of Laser Engineering of the University of Osaka.

President Klaus Iohannis will have a meeting with local authorities in Kyoto on Wednesday.

On Thursday and Friday, the president will conduct a state visit to the Republic of Singapore, where he will hold official talks with president Halimah Yacob and prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.

The president announced at the annual meeting with the heads of the diplomatic missions accredited in Romania, which took place at the beginning of the year, that relations with Japan will be raised to the level of Strategic Partnership in 2023.

President Klaus Iohannis has been in Japan in 2019 when he attended the enthronement ceremony of Emperor Naruhito. On that occasion, the president had a meeting with the Japanese prime minister at the time, Shinzo Abe.