Japan, Kazakhstan agree to arrange Japan-Central Asia summit early
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and his Kazakh counterpart, Murat Nurtleu, agreed Monday to boost moves to arrange a summit between Japan and five Central Asian nations as soon as possible.
Leaders of the six countries were due to hold a meeting under the "Central Asia plus Japan" dialogue framework in Kazakhstan in August last year.
The meeting was cancelled, however, as the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida forwent his trip to the summit at the last minute after a warning was issued for an increased risk of a megaquake in the Nankai Trough off the Pacific coast of Japan.
At Monday's meeting in Kazakhstan, Iwaya told Nurtleu, also deputy prime minister, that he hopes to further Japan-Kazakh relations by strengthening cooperation in the economic fields, such as developing mineral resources and attracting Japanese companies to the Central Asian nation.
In response, Nurtleu said Kazakhstan is eager to deepen cooperation with Japan in a wide range of areas, such as trade, investment and the economy.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
