Japan seeking to set global agenda

ANDREW HAMMOND

JAPANESE Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was previously the nation’s longest-serving foreign minister, is putting his diplomatic skills to the test again in a tricky tour of Europe and Asia in which he is seeking to set the global agenda in the months to come.

Kishida’s trip, which started Friday (Apr 29) in Asia and turns to Europe this week, is the most important yet of his prime ministership. It comes too just before his hosting in May of the so-called Quad powers of the United States, India and Australia, and soon after the visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Tokyo last week.