Yoshimasa Hayashi was recently appointed as Japan’s new Foreign Minister

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday held telephonic talks with Japan’s new Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and discussed issues related to Indo-Pacific, Afghanistan, Myanmar and travel facilitation.

Tweeting about it Jaishankar wrote: “Great pleasure to speak to Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi of Japan. Looking forward to building a close working relationship. Our discussions today covered our bilateral cooperation, Indo-Pacific, Afghanistan, Myanmar and travel facilitation.”

A few days ago, Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appointed Yoshimasa Hayashi as the Foreign Minister of the country.

Holding a master’s degree from the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in the US, Hayashi is highly fluent in English. He was first elected to Japan’s upper house of parliament in 1995. He is also a seasoned veteran of various cabinet posts.

EAM S Jaishankar’s talks with the new Japanese Foreign Minister comes more than a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s talks with new Japanese PM Fumio Kishida.

On October 8, the two leaders had an extensive discussion on bilateral cooperation, Indo-Pacific and Quad.

“The leaders discussed the increasing alignment of perspectives, and robust cooperation, between India and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region. They reviewed the progress of cooperation under the Quad framework in this regard,” the MEA said in a statement.

Japan is expected to hold Quad group meeting next year