Prime Minister to attend Commemorative Summit for the 50th Year of ASEAN-Japan Friendship and Cooperation

The trip will be made at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, according to an announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

ASEAN and Japan first established informal dialogue relations in 1973, which was later formalized in March 1977 with the convening of the ASEAN-Japan Forum. Since then, significant progress has been made in all areas of political security, economic-finance and socio-cultural cooperation.

Leaders of ASEAN and Japan adopted a joint statement on the establishment of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership at the 26th ASEAN-Japan Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 6. 

Japan is ASEAN's fourth largest external partner for both trade and investment in 2021. The two-way trade between ASEAN and Japan reached US$240.2 billion, up 17.3 per cent year-on-year, while total FDI inflows from Japan remained high at US$11.9 billion, reflecting a growth of 0.7 percent year-on-year./.