Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met in Tokyo
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni. This is the fourth meeting between Japan and Italy in just over a year, as relations between the two countries have been elevated to a strategic partnership. This demonstrates “excellent cooperation at the bilateral and multilateral level,” Meloni explained.
The Tokyo meeting is also a transfer of power, given that Italy is assuming the G7 presidency, and the Italian prime minister explained: “After Japanese presidency that has done an outstanding job, it will not be easy to justify it, but you have blazed a trail that is very easy to work with. There is bilateral and multilateral strategic convergence in the G7, and we will ensure continuity on issues at the center of Japan’s presidency.” Then the relaunching of the Italian-Japanese Business Group was mentioned, which facilitated relations and exchanges between companies and mutual investments. “The intensification of our relations leads to an exchange that grew by 10% last year to more than 15 billion euros.”
After meeting with representatives of the most important Japanese industrial groups operating in Italy, the two leaders discussed common challenges, ranging from the regulation of artificial intelligence to attention to the “hot” regions of the planet, from the Indo-Pacific region to the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East, to the problem of maritime trade security in the Red Sea. The latter is the topic of great importance to Italy: “We are involved in a defensive mission; I believe it is a useful and necessary fact. I think it is strategically important for Europe and Italy. If this channel was not available, we would have a price increase of 15 percent of the products that come to us.”
Prime Minister Kishida said he was pleased with the steps forward in economic, cultural, and human exchange cooperation and announced the opening of a direct flight to Milan to be operated by ANA (All Nippon Airways), then reiterated: “Our cohesion is in responding to the situation in Ukraine, nuclear disarmament, the Indo-Pacific region, economic security, artificial intelligence, and other global challenges.”
The leaders then talked about cooperation in aerospace, particularly the GCAP project, which concerns the development of a sixth-generation fighter jet that will involve Japan, Great Britain, and Italy.