Tokyo:
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has cancelled plans to go to India and the Philippines for the duration of his country’s extended vacation beginning in late April amid a sharp rise in COVID-19 circumstances, a senior government spokesman stated on Wednesday.
Japan’s government is thinking of a state of emergency for Tokyo and many other prefectures, whilst Indian information showed on Wednesday there had been 295,041 new infections nationwide overnight and 2,023 deaths, India’s highest in the pandemic.
Asked about media reports that Suga’s trip to the two nations has been cancelled, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato stated: “In order to take all possible coronavirus countermeasures, it has been decided Prime Minister Suga won’t take any overseas trips during the Golden Week.”
Japan and India are members of a group recognized as the Quad, which also incorporates the United States and Australia.
Quad leaders last month pledged to work to make sure a absolutely free and open Indo-Pacific area and to cooperate on maritime, cyber and financial safety, difficulties very important to the 4 democracies in the face of challenges from China.
Suga’s India trip would have enabled him to hold his 1st in-particular person summit meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Suga has currently held face-to-face talks with two other leaders from the Quad – U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
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