Japanese PM Abe welcomes Qatar\'s new PM

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sent a congratulatory message to Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani upon his nomination as Qatar\'s new Prime Minister and Interior Minister, the Foreign Ministry said here Friday. In his message to Sheikh Abdullah on Thursday, Abe expressed his congratulation on the nomination on behalf of the government and people of Japan, and voiced his intention to cooperate closely with him to further strengthen the bilateral relations with Qatar, according to the ministry. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida also sent a congratulatory message on Friday to Dr. Khaled bin Mohamed Al-Attiyah as he was appointed as the new Qatari Foreign Minister. Kishida also expressed his intention to cooperate proactively with his Qatari counterpart to further strengthen the bilateral relations and friendship between the two countries in the various fields such as foreign policy, energy, defense exchange, economy, culture, and people-to-people exchanges. Qatar was Japan\'s second-largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplier after Australia in 2012, with Japan importing a total of 15.7 million tons of LNG from Qatar, up 32 percent from a year earlier.