Netanyahu, Abe Discuss Bilateral Ties, Agree To Promote Direct Israel-Japan Flights
Written by TPS on May 02, 2018
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Wednesday to move forward on the issue of direct flights between Tel Aviv and Tokyo, which would increase tourism, investments and business.
The two leaders discussed Iran’s nuclear program, the Middle East peace process, bilateral trade ties and cooperation in the field of cybersecurity.
“ We see the tremendous growth in Japanese investments of Israel, Israeli investments in Japan, the technology opportunities. This is a great partnership and we’ll make it even better,” Netanyahu said.
Abe too pointed to a “dramatic increase in the Japanese investment to Israel under my administration” and said he hoped Netanyahu would pay another visit to Japan in the near future. The Japanese prime minister noted that he had brought a business delegation with him that included many CEOs.
“I do hope that you’ll have a productive discussion with the business leaders in the summit meetings that we are planning to have. And also I do hope that we’ll further investment development between the two sides,” Abe told Netanyahu.
On Iran, Netanyahu raised the issue of the Iranian nuclear archive obtained by Israel’s secret services and revealed earlier this week. Netanyahu said that the 2015 nuclear deal was a bad agreement based on Iran’s lies and deceit and added that “whoever does not want nuclear weapons does not prepare plans and certainly does not preserve them.”
On the Middle East peace process, Abe, who visited Ramallah earlier in the day to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Netanyahu that Japan remained firmly committed to a two-state solution and that direct dialogue between concerned parties was the only way forward.
Netanyahu condemned anti-Semitic comments made by Abbas earlier in the week in which he suggested that the reason for the Holocaust Jews’ “usury and banks.” The prime minister told Abe that Abbas’ remarks “reveal the true reason why there is no peace.”