Meeting between Mr. Taro Aso, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor of the Republic of Singapore
May 24, 2007
On May 22 (Tue), Mr. Taro Aso, Minister for Foreign Affairs, had a meeting
with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, Minister Mentor, Cabinet Ministers’ Office of the Republic
of Singapore, who was visiting Japan to attend an international conference held
by a newspaper company in Japan. The meeting took place for about 30 minutes
from 17:30 in the Imperial Hotel, where Mr. Lee was staying. The gist
of the talk is as follows:
- On the situation in East Asia, Mr. Lee, referring to his experiences of visits to China, expressed his views mainly on the current situation of China’s domestic politics and the cross-Taiwan strait relations.
- Mr. Lee also mentioned that in recent years China was founding ‘Confucius Institutes’ abroad as bases to teach Chinese language and Chinese culture. In response, Mr. Aso mentioned that Japan’s subculture such as manga, games were leading more and more foreigners to become interested in learning Japanese.
- Mr. Lee stated that he highly evaluated the signing of the Protocol for the Amendment of the Japan-Singapore Economic Partnership Agreement by the leaders of both sides in March this year as strengthening not only trade relations but also bilateral relations as a whole. Mr. Lee also stated that he looked for the progress of the negotiations on the Japan-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.
(END)
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