Japanese PM Abe's Turkey visit display of a ‘strong bond’

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attended the inauguration ceremony of Marmaray tunnel project linking Asian and Europe on Oct 29. AA Photo

The Japanese prime minister’s visit to Turkey for the purposes of attending the inauguration ceremony of a groundbreaking Turkish railway project linking the Asian and European continents is a show of the strong bond between the leaders of the two nations, a senior Japanese official has said.

The visit does not just signify the strength of Turkish-Japanese ties, but also the relationship between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Tomohiko Taniguchi of the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat told a group of Turkish journalists in Istanbul on Oct. 28.

Reminding of the sincere celebration by Erdoğan to Abe after the Japanese capital, Tokyo, won the bid over Istanbul for the Olympic Games 2020, Taniguchi said the Japanese leader “was very moved by his Turkish counterpart’s celebration.” “He decided that he must go to Istanbul [for the inauguration] to fulfill his promise,” he said.

Calling Turkey and Japan respectively “stabilizers in the Middle East and Far East,” Taniguchi reminded the metaphor used by Abe during his speech in Istanbul and said: “Turkey and Japan are the two wings of an Asian bird.”