(Provisional translation by an external company for reference purpose only)
I will visit Malaysia from today, October 31 until November 2 in order to participate in the 12th ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) and the following 9th ASEAN-Japan Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting. ADMM-Plus is an extremely important forum where defense ministers and other officials from 11 ASEAN countries and eight countries outside the ASEAN region come together to exchange views on regional security issues. At this meeting, I intend to strongly emphasize to my counterparts from each country the need to strengthen collaboration across the entire region, while ensuring the unity and centrality of ASEAN, in order to address the current severe security environment surrounding the region and the international community and ensure peace and prosperity in the region and the international community. Furthermore, in the ASEAN-Japan Defence Ministers’ Informal Meeting held after this meeting, I intend to hold candid and constructive discussions for strengthening defense collaboration between Japan and ASEAN and for Japan and ASEAN to contribute together to the peace and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific. In addition, to the extent that time allows, I plan to use this opportunity to hold separate meetings with the defense ministers from each country, including ASEAN countries, who are participating in these meetings, and now I am planning bilateral meetings with a number of countries, including Japan-India, Japan-China, Japan-Australia, Japan-New Zealand, etc. Going forward, I intend to build a foundation for deepening our defense relationships with each country with a sense of speed. ASEAN is key to a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP)” and is an extremely important region for Japan. Through these meetings, I intend to hold candid and constructive discussions aimed at providing strong support for FOIP in terms of defense.