German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is planning to visit Japan in late April to hold talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and how to manage China's rise likely to top the agenda, a government source said Saturday.
Scholz will meet with Kishida possibly on April 28, the Japanese source said. It will be his first visit since taking office in December last year.
Germany is now the rotating chair of the Group of Seven major developed countries and is set to host their annual summit at Schloss Elmau, a castle resort in the Bavarian Alps, from June 26 to June 28.
His visit is aimed at preparing for the summit, through which Germany is hoping to demonstrate the G-7 countries' unity in promoting common values such as democracy and freedom.
Reducing dependency on energy resources from Russia has become a key issue in Europe, and will likely be discussed during the meeting of the Japanese and German leaders, who have strongly condemned Moscow's "atrocities" in Ukraine with other G-7 leaders.
In light of the war in Ukraine, Scholz and Kishida are also expected to reaffirm their opposition to the unilateral use of force to change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific region, where China is increasingly putting pressure on Taiwan.
Germany has distanced itself from cordial relations with China in recent years due to Beijing's assertiveness in the region, in line with actions by Britain and the European Union.
In April last year, the foreign and defense ministers of Japan and Germany held their first so-called two-plus-two meeting in a virtual format.
Then in December, a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer conducted a joint exercise with a German frigate off the southern Japan prefecture of Okinawa.
The frigate became the country's first military vessel in about two decades to make a port call to Japan, which is scheduled to take over the presidency of G-7 in 2023.
