Why the visit to Bulgaria by Japan’s PM is historic and special

published on 1/15/18 2:19 PM]

БНР Новини

Photo: BGNES

As part of his European tour, on 14 and 15 January, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Bulgaria, after Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. From Sofia he left for Romania and Serbia. The tour is described, in Bulgaria and elsewhere, as historic and special.
Internationally, for Japan it coincides, as Shinzo Abe himself pointed out, with the most complicated situation after World War 2 security-wise, over North Korea’s ballistic missile tests. In Estonia, Abe announced Japan would join the NATO cyber defence centre in Tallinn, and one day later, in Sofia, received the Bulgarian prime minister’s full support for Japan’s position on the North Korea problem. Bulgaria is a small country with a modest potential for involvement in resolving global issues, yet it is currently in the seat of the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU. And as prominent observers, including former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen say, the visit by PM Shinzo Abe to Sofia reflects Japan’s understanding that the future of the international economic order will be defined in Europe and together with it. The European tour by Prime Minister Abe comes at a time when the negotiations on an EU-Japan trade deal have reached an advanced stage, a process, for the acceleration of which his Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov has promised maximum support.
The support for Japan expressed by the Bulgarian government in Sofia is particularly valuable politically, but most of all economically. On the one hand it was expressed in the context of the desire to see Europe strong and united, and on the other – of the desire to see Japan cooperating with the entire region of the Western Balkans by way of its economic cooperation with Bulgaria. In light of this, during the visit by the Japanese prime minister to Sofia, it was decided to set up a Japanese business forum that will help Japanese companies enter Bulgaria. A joint executive committee for cooperation in culture, science and technologies will also be set up.
Bilaterally, the visit by Shinzo Abe to Bulgaria is important in that it is the first visit ever by a Japanese prime minister since the establishment of bilateral relations. Contacts between the two countries have invariably been very good, but this is probably not the only reason for Shinzo Abe’s visit to this country, the visit should also be viewed in light of a reevaluation of Bulgaria’s potential as an international partner, member of the EU and of NATO.
The Bulgarian National Radio had its own role to play in this visit. While the prime ministers of the two countries were holding official talks, Akie Abe, wife of the Japanese PM paid a visit to the BNR, at her own request, to meet with the BNR’s Children’s Radio Choir. The choir has been extremely popular in the Land of the Rising Sun since the 1960s, and has had more than 500 concerts there, while at the same time popularizing Japanese music culture here, in Bulgaria. Moved by the role the children have been playing, Mrs. Akie Abe expressed the hope that with their music, they will continue to promote friendship between Bulgaria and Japan.

English version: Milena Daynova

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Why the visit to Bulgaria by Japan’s PM is historic and special

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