Riyadh, January 12, 2020, SPA -- Japan appreciated the efforts made by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, in strengthening bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Japan through the Saudi-Japanese vision 2030, stressing its support for the Kingdom to make its presidency of the Group of Twenty successful. This came during a press conference held by the Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Masato Ohtaka in Riyadh this evening on the sidelines of the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Kingdom, highlighting the importance of the visit in enhancing and developing bilateral relations between the two friendly countries, in addition to discussing a number of regional and international issues Of common interest. He affirmed Japan's keenness to strengthen its relations with the Kingdom for its pivotal role in the region, and conveyed its thanks for the continuous and stable flow of oil to Japan. He stressed the importance of making diplomatic efforts and strengthening the language of dialogue among the parties to reduce the escalation and the tension in the Middle East region, stressing that his country believes that any military confrontation in the region will have great repercussions on peace and stability not only in the Middle East region but also on the entire world. He pointed out that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Japan's approval to send the Self-Defense Force of a ship to gather information and guarantee the protection and safety of maritime navigation in the region. The spokesman of the Japanese Foreign Ministry reviewed during the conference the volume of investments between the Kingdom and Japan, which is one of the axes of the Saudi-Japanese vision 2030, which began in 2016 and includes 69 axes in the fields of cooperation between the two friendly countries, noting that the investments and contracts between the two countries in recent years have exceed more than $ 30 billion. --SPA 03:32 LOCAL TIME 00:32 GMT 0039 www.spa.gov.sa/2021832