Kishida to become first Japan PM to attend NATO summit

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday he planned to attend the NATO summit later this month, which would make him the first Japanese leader to do so.

"I intend to make an appeal that changing the status quo unilaterally by force is unacceptable anywhere in the world and that security in Europe is inseparable from security in Indo-Pacific," Kishida told a news conference.

Kishida also said he planned to set up a government agency for managing infectious disease responses under one roof, and to create the Japanese equivalent of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States.