Japanese prime minister to visit Tehran
Government sources in Japan announced that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would travel to Tehran in July for talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Kyodo news agency in a report on Friday said that if the visit is made it will be the first to Iran by a Japanese prime minister in the past 40 years. In 1978, then Japanese prime minister Takeo Fukuda visited Iran.
In September 2017, Abe and Rouhani met each other on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York.
According to Japanese media, Abe is planning to announce Japan's support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) following the US withdrawal from it during his forthcoming talks with Rouhani.
Tokyo is also trying to strengthen its economic ties with Iran as one of the major producers of natural gas and oil in the world.
It is said that Abe's Tehran visit would be a part of his tour of Europe and the Middle East in mid July. He is scheduled to visit Belgium and France and then travel to the Middle East.
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