Japan’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday saying that meeting between President Hassan Rouhani and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday will be a part of Tokyo’s efforts to ease tension in the Middle East region.

“Japan has been relentlessly making diplomatic efforts, in cooperation with relevant countries including the United States and Iran, in order to ease the tensions and stabilize the situation in the Middle East. PM Abe will exchange views candidly on topics of the bilateral relations, regional and international issues with the Iranian president as a part of such diplomatic efforts,” read the statement.

Rouhani’s trip to Japan will be the first one by an Iranian president since October 2000.

He left Iran for Malaysia on Tuesday and after concluding his visit to Malaysia, Rouhani will fly to Japan for talks with Abe.

Before departure to Kuala Lumpur, he said regional security will be discussed in the meeting with Prime Minister Abe.

Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi said on Monday that visits to Tehran and Tokyo by the officials from Iran and Japan show the strength of relations between the two countries.

During a conference at Tehran University, Araghchi said, “Rouhani’s visit to Japan will be one-day and in continuation of the two countries’ national interests. We should not expect something special to happen. Diplomatic visits are constant and are not in a way that a special result be achieved by just one move. Hundreds of meetings should be held to reach a result.”

In an interview with NHK published on December 7, Araghchi said that Japan is an economic partner and provider of technology to Iran, which has always been one of Japan’s major oil suppliers.

Araghchi added Iran wants to maintain the same positive relationship with Japan and hinted at a possible resumption of oil exports.

Araghchi and Abe met in Tokyo on December 3 during which Abe said that Japan still supports the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the JCPOA.

Araqchi submitted a written message from Rouhani to Abe during the visit.

The Japanese prime minister welcomed the continuation of political consultations between the two countries.

Abe visited Iran in June as the first Japanese leader since 1978. He was carrying a message from U.S. President Donald Trump to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for talks with Tehran. The Leader, while praising Japan’s sincerity, said Trump is not worthy of exchanging messages with.

To the surprise of the world, in May 2018 Trump abrogated the multilateral nuclear accord endorsed by the UN Security Council and returned previous sanctions on Iran and added fresh ones.

NA/PA