Japan's Abe Mulls Visit to Turkey Again

Tokyo, Oct. 8 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering visiting Turkey on Oct. 29, government sources said Tuesday. If materialized, this will be the second trip to Turkey for Abe since he visited there in May. Abe aims to hold talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and attend an opening ceremony to be held on Oct. 29, Turkey's national foundation day, for an undersea tunnel under the Bosporus Straits, the sources said. Abe also plans to give a final push to a Japanese-French consortium's bid for nuclear plant construction in Turkey. The two leaders agreed to give preferential negotiating rights to the consortium when they met in May. In their May meeting, Erdogan asked Abe to visit Turkey again, and the Japanese prime minister responded positively. Abe and Erdogan are also expected to discuss the civil war in Syria. Abe also aims to seek cooperation from Turkey to make the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games successful. Tokyo won its bid to host the 2020 Olympics at an International Olympic Committee meeting last month by beating its two rivals--Istanbul and Madrid. END