Malta would be a “straight-talking but honest” partner to Japan, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told his counterpart Shinzo Abe at a meeting in Tokyo.

Dr Muscat, who is leading a trade delegation in Japan, discussed opportunities to bolster trade between the two nations and highlighted shared values between Malta and Japan.

He told Mr Abe that Malta was very keen to see an EU-Japan partnership agreement come into force, and saw prospects to increase exports of high-quality agricultural products, including pork and tomatoes, to Japan.

The EU-Japan partnership agreement, which was finalised last December, will remove a variety of tariff and non-tariff trade barriers between the EU and Japan, allowing more products from each side to enter the other.

Tariffs on more than 90 per cent of EU exports to Japan will be eliminated through the agreement, with customs duties on 97% of EU imports into the country also scrapped.

Dr Muscat also noted that a growing number of Japanese students were choosing to come to Malta to learn English as foreign language, and who would now be able to work on the island following changes in legislation.

Mr Abe highlighted excellent relations between the two countries and noted that the number of Japanese tourists to Malta had more than doubled in recent years.

He welcomed a civil aviation agreement between the two countries and said that commercial relations were bound to be given a boost by Dr Muscat’s visit to the country – the second by a Maltese prime minister in the past 28 years – and which Mr Abe described as a spring board to strengthen relations.

Mr Abe thanked Malta for its collaboration on international issues such as handling North Korea, and expressed deep gratitude for its role in the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Libya during the crisis there.

The two leaders also spoke about the close collaboration between the two countries to consolidate maritime rule of law within the context of the International Maritime Law Institute in Malta.

Photo: DOI/Kevin Abela