The official made the remark at a press conference in Tokyo on April 28, during which he announced that PM Kishida will visit Vietnam on April 30 and May 1.
During the visit, the Japanese PM is scheduled to hold talkswith his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh on May 1. In addition, he willalso have meetings with Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, PresidentNguyen Xuan Phuc, and National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
Apart from Vietnam, in his foreign trip starting from April 29, Kishida willvisit two other Southeast Asian countries, namely Indonesia (from April 29 to30) and Thailand (from May 1 to 2). After that, he will travel to Italy and the UK,before returning to Japan on May 6. This will be the PM's first longoverseas trip since taking office last October.
Kishida’s upcoming visit to Southeast Asia aims tostrengthen cooperation with the three countries toward a free andopen Indo-Pacific region and to increase the coordination on the ASEAN Outlookon the Indo-Pacific (AOIP)./.