Want China Times
Date: 2015-07-31
By: CNA
Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe affirmed Wednesday that Taiwan is an important
Japan prime minister Shinzo Abe answers questions during an upper house special committee session at the parliament, Tokyo, July 28. (File photo/CFP)
partner that Japan should cherish.
Abe made the remarks in an interpellation session of the Special Committee on Peace and Security of the Senate when replying to questions raised by senators of the opposition parties.
The Japanese Senate is now reviewing the nation’s new security bill approved earlier this month by the lower house of the Diet, which would allow Japan’s military forces to participate in military operations abroad for the first time since the end of World War II.
“Taiwan is an important partner of our country that shares basic values with us,” Abe said when referring to the relations between the two neighboring countries.
“Taiwan is a friend that Japan should cherish,” the Japanese prime minister reiterated, adding that “to maintain substantial non-governmental relations with Taiwan is our position.”
Referring to the future development of relations between Taiwan and Japan, Abe said that future bilateral cooperation and dialogue between the two countries will be conducted on the basis of “our country’s basic position.”
