English: During his visit to Brunei Darussalam, Minister for Foreign Affairs Fumio Kishida paid a courtesy call on His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billa for approximately 20 minutes from around 11:30 a.m. (local time) on Saturday, January 12. The following is an overview of the meeting.

At the outset, Minister Kishida paid tribute to the role of Brunei's royal family played in promoting relations between the two countries and said Japan would like to further strengthen the bilateral relationship this year when Brunei is chair of ASEAN and next year that marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Japan-Brunei diplomatic relations. Crown Prince Billa welcomed the remarks.

Referring to bilateral relations, Minister Kishida expressed gratitude to Brunei for its longtime stable supply of LNG and said Japan would like to cooperate in further developing mutually beneficial bilateral economic relations. Citing exchanges in the field of soccer as an example of people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, Minister Kishida proposed to continue such exchanges. Crown Prince Billa welcomed the suggestions.

As for ASEAN-related issues, Minister Kishida said Japan would actively support the establishment of the ASEAN Community scheduled for 2015, adding that the integration of ASEAN was important. He also promised to offer Brunei overall support so it could fulfill its responsibility as ASEAN chair. Crown Prince Billa welcomed the support.

(At the outset of the courtesy call, Minister Kishida presented Crown Prince Billa with a soccer uniform of Japan's national team with the Crown Prince's name printed on it, and the courtesy call took place in a friendly atmosphere.)