NICOSIA – The opening of a Japanese Embassy on Cyprus, which is reaching out more to Asian countries, is the forerunner to trying to bring closer ties to the country, President Nicos Anastasiades as the doors opened on July 23.

He said it was also an historic milestone between them and announced that a Cypriot embassy would open in Tokyo by the end of the year, the Cyprus Mail reported.

At the opening of the embassy, attended by Japan’s State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kazuyuki Nakane, Anastasiades also made an invitation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit Cyprus.

The visit by Nakane, and the embassy’s opening “is a testament to the qualitative upgrading we have been witnessing these past few years in the relationship between our two countries.”

The two met earlier and said they discussed more high-level exchanges and visits between officials from both governments as well as people-to-people contacts and to try to develop business ties through tourism, trade, investments, culture and merchant shipping.

Anastasiades also cited the Economic Partnership Agreement signed a week before between the European Union and Japan.

Nakane said that Japan and Cyprus as island countries benefit from the rules under international law for free and open seas, and both countries are seeking peace and stability in their region. “We would like to work together to consolidate international law at sea,” he said.

Cyprus, he said, is a member of the EU and at the same time is close to the Middle East, and Japan attaches great importance to the geopolitical role of Cyprus, and for that reason decided to establish an embassy in Nicosia, the paper reported.

“With the establishment of our embassy, I hope to further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries,” Nakane said.