Japan and Brazil are working to arrange a meeting between their leaders on the fringes of the summit of the Group of 20 major economies in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 5, a Japanese government source said Friday.
Tokyo hopes that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Brazilian counterpart, President Dilma Rousseff, will confirm plans to further strengthen cooperation in trade relations between the two countries, the source said.
Also topping the agenda during the meeting would be expanding bilateral cooperation in deep-sea oil exploration and civil nuclear technology, including a possible export of nuclear power facilities to Brazil.
An Abe-Rousseff summit had been planned in late June, but the Brazilian leader postponed her trip to Japan due to mass protests over rising food prices and large public spending on World Cup projects in her country.
Abe is therefore expected to renew his invitation to Rousseff to visit Japan.
Tokyo is eager to strengthen ties with Brasilia for resource and food security, given Brazil is rich in natural resources, including iron ore and oil, and is a major exporter of crops, such as sugar, coffee beans and soybeans.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is scheduled to visit Brazil from Monday and hold a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, in Brasilia later in the day.
A summit between Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin is already scheduled on the sidelines of the two-day G-20 summit from Sept. 5. Japan and the United States are separately working to arrange a summit between Abe and President Barack Obama on the sidelines.