U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen canceled a visit to the Port of Yokohama out of respect for Japan’s mourning following the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
That includes a planned speech at the port by Yellen, who began trip to Asia in Japan on Sunday, according to Treasury spokeswoman Elizabeth Bourgeois. A meeting with Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki remains scheduled for Tuesday.
Yellen’s first trip to Asia since taking office includes stops in Tokyo and Seoul. In between, she’ll attend a Group of 20 finance ministers gathering in Bali, Indonesia, on Friday and Saturday. A central topic of her talks is to help build momentum for a complex effort to cap prices for Russian oil.
The discussions, which were backed by leaders of the smaller Group of Seven advanced economies in June, are about limiting the revenue Russia earns from oil exports without driving its oil off the global market and pushing up prices again. Critics have called it too complex to work.
Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, a figure of enduring influence and an anchor of U.S.-Japanese ties, died after being shot at a campaign event Friday. He was 67. U.S. President Joe Biden left a handwritten note in the Japanese Embassy’s condolence book and praised Abe’s "vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific” during a call with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.