Japan's PM considering visiting Cuba next month

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering visiting Cuba next month to strengthen ties and promote Japanese investments there, Kyodo news agency reported on Thursday, but the foreign ministry said no such plan was being made.

The trip, if confirmed, will coincide with Abe's planned attendance at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, Kyodo said. It would be the first ever visit to Cuba by a Japanese prime minister.

"There is no such fact. That is all I can say," an official at the foreign ministry's Latin American and Caribbean Affairs division said, referring to the Kyodo report.

Kishida's trip followed a surprise announcement by Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama that the former adversaries would normalise ties.