Japan's Kishida says NATO summit progress

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida heads for the plane carrying him back to Japan from Madrid on June 29. Pool MADRID Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reported that significant progress was made in security cooperation at the NATO summit, the first ever attended by a Japanese prime minister.

Kishida told reporters that national security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region is inseparable and that changing the status quo through force is unacceptable in any region of the world.

He was asked about the first meeting between the leaders of Japan, the United States and South Korea in about five years.

We agreed to work closely together from the standpoints of bolstering deterrence, including through security cooperation between the three nations, and working within the UN Security Council as well as other diplomatic efforts - all in working toward the complete denuclearization of North Korea, Kishida said.

The prime minister was asked about various public opinion polls showing his ruling Liberal Democratic Party is expected to do well in the July 10 Upper House election.

He said that the actual results are everything, so I will not be influenced by the results of opinion surveys.

Kishida said his goal is for the ruling coalition to maintain its majority in the Upper House.

He also brushed aside questions about the possibility of reshuffling his Cabinet or LDP executives after the election, emphasizing that his mind was set only on the Upper House campaign.

The special government plane carrying Kishida and his entourage was expected to arrive in Japan on June 30.