Japanese PM due in Tehran in July

TEHRAN, Jun. 22 (MNA) – 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, “this visit will be the first visit of a Japanese prime minister to the Islamic Republic of Iran in the past 40 years. In 1978, then Japanese prime minister Takeo Fukuda had visited Iran.” In September 2017, Abe and Rouhani met each other on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting in New York. In his upcoming visit to Iran, Japanese PM 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 JCPOA. 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.