APD | Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu to visit Manila next week

By APD writer Melo M. Acuña

Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu will embark on a two-day official visit to the Philippines from January 8 to 9,2020 as guest of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement released early Thursday evening, the DFA said Minister Motegi will have a bilateral meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. on January 9 to discuss the advancement of the Philippine-Japan Strategic partnership in terms of political dialogues, economic and infrastructure cooperation, defense and maritime security and Japan’s support for Mindanao as well as the transition to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Foreign Ministers Motegi and Locsin will also exchange views on developments in the regional security landscape.

Minister Motegi will also pay a courtesy call on President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to the DFA statement, this will be Minister Motegi’s first visit to the Philippines after being appointed to the position last September 11,2019. The Philippines is part of the Foreign Minister’s four-country Southeast Asian swing. He is scheduled to visit Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

According to the DFA, the visit constitutes “a further affirmation of the strengthened strategic partnership between the Philippines and japan, where both countries continue to elevate and deepen further the decades-long economic cooperation along with their engagement on strategic security issues.

Minister Motegi, now 64 years old, was a foreign political journalist for the Yomuiri Shimbun and has a degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo and graduate studies from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)