Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron, in phone talks, have expressed hope for further cooperation between Nissan Motor and Renault after management reshuffle in the French automaker amid scandal around former boss Carlos Ghosn, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday
TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2019) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and French President Emmanuel Macron, in phone talks, have expressed hope for further cooperation between Nissan Motor and Renault after management reshuffle in the French automaker amid scandal around former boss Carlos Ghosn, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.On Wednesday, Ghosn, who has been in custody in Japan since November, resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault. Next day, the company's board of directors appointed Thierry Bollore as its chief executive officer and Jean-Dominique Senard as new chairman.
"Prime Minister Abe said that the alliance between Nissan Motor and Renault SA is a symbol of Japanese-French industrial cooperation, and the Japanese government hopes that this stable alliance will be maintained and will be further developing," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement added that "both leaders expect unimpeded development of cooperation [between the automakers]."
Ghosn and Greg Kelly, his right-hand man, were arrested in Tokyo on November 19 on allegations of misreporting Ghosn's earnings over a five-year period from 2010. Both men have denied the allegation.
Following the arrest, Nissan removed Ghosn from the post of its chairman. After the reshuffle in Renault, the company announced that it would hold shareholders' extraordinary meeting in April to formally change its board of directors.
The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is a partnership that focuses on the development of mechanical engineering. The Renault-Nissan alliance was established in 1999. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, while the Japanese company has a 15 percent stake in its French partner. In 2016, Nissan bought a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi Motors, and as a result the world's largest automaker alliance was formed, with cumulative sales in 2017 totaling 10.6 million vehicles.
