Kishida eyes trip to Middle East in late August

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in late August to help stabilize crude oil markets rattled by Russia’s war in Ukraine, government sources said Wednesday.

The envisaged trip to the Middle East, which would be the first by a Japanese leader since Shinzo Abe in January 2020, will come after Kishida visits Tunisia for an international conference on African development known as TICAD on Aug. 27 and 28, the sources said.