Japan-Poland Relations
Japan-Poland Foreign Ministers' Meeting
April 4, 2023
On April 4, for about 20 minutes from 6:35 p.m local time (April 5, 1:35 a.m. JST), Mr. HAYASHI Yoshimasa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, who is visiting Belgium to attend the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held a meeting with H.E. Prof. Zbigniew RAU, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. The overview of the meeting is as follows.
- Minister Hayashi expressed his pleasure to meet with Minister Rau, since his visit to Warsaw last April as a special envoy of Prime Minister, and thanked him for the willingness by President Duda and Prime Minister Morawiecki to meet with Prime Minister Kishida when he visited Poland in March.
- Minister Hayashi stated that Poland is a strategic partner with which Japan shares fundamental values and that Japan would like to continue to work closely with Poland in dealing with Russia's aggression against Ukraine and in realizing "free and open Indo-Pacific". He also stated that as the only country to have ever suffered atomic bombings during wartime, Japan absolutely cannot accept Russia’s nuclear threat, let alone its use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances.
- Minister Rau expressed high appreciation for Prime Minister Kishida's visit to Poland and expressed his gratitude for the decision to provide ODA to Poland. Regarding bilateral relations, he expressed his pleasure at the progress of bilateral cooperation in a wide range of fields and his hope to continue to work with Japan, as the chair of the G7, on various issues of the international community, including the situation of Ukraine.
- In addition, the two ministers also exchanged views on the situation in East Asia and concurred on cooperating in responding to unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas. They also confirmed their coordination in economic security, including economic coercion. Furthermore, the two ministers confirmed that they will work closely together in dealing with North Korea, including on the nuclear and missile issues as well as the abductions issue.