Japan's foreign minister to attend ASEAN talks in Malaysia
The gatherings in Kuala Lumpur include Thursday's ASEAN Plus Three foreign ministers' meeting involving Japan, China and South Korea, and Friday's 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum -- a security dialogue also joined by the United States, Russia and North Korea -- the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.
Iwaya told a press conference that a ministerial meeting of the Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development, the first since June 2018, will also be held during his three-day stay in the Malaysian capital starting Wednesday.
He pledged to continue working toward stronger ties between Japan and the 10-member bloc, saying he aims to "promote a free and open Indo-Pacific" and lead the region to "dialogue and harmony, not confrontation and division."
China's top diplomat, Wang Yi, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to be among the participants in the ASEAN-related gatherings.
Iwaya and Wang are considering holding talks, with the two likely to discuss China's resumption of Japanese seafood imports banned after the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, sources close to the matter said. The ban, imposed in August 2023, was lifted in June.
Asked about the prospects for bilateral talks with Wang, Iwaya said "Nothing has been decided at this point" but added that if they do meet, he would "make maximum efforts to achieve concrete results."
Rubio had been arranging side trips to Japan and South Korea, according to a Japanese government source, but the two U.S. allies were not included in the itinerary of his Asian tour released by the U.S. State Department.
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