MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th July, 2022) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived in Japan to express his condolences on the death of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated on Friday, the Kyodo news agency reports.
Blinken changed his schedule after his trip to Thailand and met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday morning, saying that Abe's death was a great loss for the US, since the former prime minister lifted bilateral relations to a new level.
Blinken's unplanned stopover in Japan comes at the end of his pre-scheduled July 6-11 Asia tour, which included trips to Bali, Indonesia, and Bangkok, Thailand.
Abe was attacked on Friday morning in the Japanese city of Nara during his campaign speech. Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, approached the politician from behind and fired two shots from a distance of about 10 meters (33 feet). Police said Abe was conscious immediately after being wounded, but then, during transportation, his condition became critical "with cardiac and pulmonary arrest." Later in the day, Nara Medical University hospital pronounced him dead.
According to Politico, Blinken was attending a G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Bali on Friday when Abe was shot and killed. Kyodo said on Monday that US President Joe Biden spoke with Kishida on Saturday by phone.
Speaking in Bali on Saturday, Blinken expressed "shock and sadness" at Abe's assassination and said it was a "tragedy" not only for Japan, but for the world as a whole.
Yamagami was sent to prosecutors on Sunday and is facing murder charges. Sources told Kyodo that Yamagami allegedly said that he initially intended to attack "an executive" of some religious organization which he believed was associated with Abe and that his mother had made a huge donation to. Later, the attacker changed his mind and decided to target Abe instead.
