Tokyo — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman arrives in Tokyo for a three-day visit Sunday.
The King is on a month-long Asia tour which took him to Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
This will be King Salman’s first visit to Japan after ascending the throne two years ago.
After Japan, the King will travel to Beijing.
For Japan, Riyadh’s second largest economic partner, the visit is important. It is an opportunity to enhance energy security, to secure infrastructure investment opportunities and to flesh out memorandums of understanding signed last year.
The Kingdom and Japan will discuss investment in light of a September 2016 agreement between Saudi Aramco and Mizuho Bank.
The King will meet Japan’s emperor and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
In his meeting with Abe, King Salman is expected to agree on a “Saudi-Japanese Vision 2030” that would include several dozens of joint cooperation projects, such as desalination and solar power generation.
Japan is hoping to support Saudi Arabia’s reform efforts so businesses could join in such projects.
Bilateral Saudi-Japanese relations kicked off in 1938, when an envoy for the late King Abdul Aziz traveled to Japan to attend the opening of the Tokyo Mosque.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited the Middle East three times since 2012, including a state visit to the Kingdom in 2013. — Agencies
