Abe Off to Argentina for G-20 Summit, Talks with Trump, Putin, Xi

November 29, 2018

Tokyo--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe left for Argentina on Thursday to attend a Group of 20 summit and hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of the United States, China and Russia.

"Through my summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, I hope to boost momentum for making progress in negotiations on concluding a bilateral peace treaty under our recent agreement to accelerate the talks based on the 1956 Japan-Soviet joint declaration," Abe told reporters at Tokyo International Airport at Haneda just before his departure for his tour of three South American nations, also including Uruguay and Paraguay.

"With Japan set to serve as G-20 chair next year, I will lead discussions" at the summit among the 20 advanced and emerging economies, he stressed.

After arriving in Buenos Aires late Thursday night local time, Abe will attend the two-day G-20 summit in the Argentine capital from Friday.

The prime minister is expected to emphasize Japan's position of attaching importance to free trade amid escalating trade friction between the United States and China, informed sources said.

Abe plans to call on the world's two biggest economies to mend fences, by showing the Japanese stance at his separate one-on-one meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the sources.

With Trump and Xi, Abe is likely to exchange opinions on North Korean issues as well, the sources said.

The focus of the Abe-Putin meeting will likely be the decades-old territorial dispute between Tokyo and Moscow over four Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands.

The two leaders' accord to base the peace treaty talks on the 1956 declaration was reached at their meeting in Singapore on Nov. 14. The document stipulated that two of the four islands--the Habomais and Shikotan--be handed over to Japan after the conclusion of a World War II peace treaty.

Due to the territorial row, Tokyo and Moscow have still been unable to conclude a peace treaty to formally end their hostilities in the war. The islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan, were seized by the former Soviet Union from Japan at the end of the war.

Abe's bilateral summits with Trump and Xi are set to take place in Buenos Aires on Friday. The Abe-Putin meeting is slated for Saturday.

On Friday, Abe will also hold a trilateral meeting with Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first summit among Japan, the United States and India. They are expected to agree on cooperation to realize a free and open Indo-Pacific, the sources said.

Abe will visit Uruguay and Paraguay on Sunday, becoming the first Japanese prime minister to travel to the two South American countries.

On the day, he will hold meetings with leaders of Uruguay and Paraguay, and interact with local people of Japanese descent to enhance Japan's relations with the two nations. Abe will return home on Tuesday. Jiji Press