Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciucă and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Marcel Ciolacu, are on an official visit to Japan, where they will attend the state funeral of former prime minister Shinzo Abe.

Abe was shot dead while making a campaign speech in the city of Nara in July. The state funeral will take place on September 27.

Japan’s former PM “had a crucial contribution to the start of the process of transforming the bilateral relations between Romania and Japan into a strategic partnership, in the context of the historic visit he made to Bucharest in 2018,” the Romanian Government said.

During his visit to Tokyo, the Romanian PM met with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida.

Ciucă will also hold bilateral meetings with other officials attending the funeral, among them the Australian PM Anthony Albanese and South Korean PM Han Duck-soo.

Abe was the first Japanese prime minister to visit Romania in 2018. While he was welcomed by president Klaus Iohannis, he could not meet a head of government as his Romanian counterpart Mihai Tudose had just resigned. 

A host of world leaders will attend the service for Shinzo Abe, among them the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, according to The Guardian.

(Photo: Shinzo Abe in 2016 by Palinchak | Dreamstime.com)

simona@romania-insider.com