(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 15 GEN - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is on a six-country European tour that makes him the first Japanese prime minister to visit the region. Abe visited Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria. Serbia and Romania are his next stops.

Abe said that Japan has entered a pact with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to boost economic and political ties with the three former Soviet republics. Abe said that information technology, transportation and medicine are areas where Japan sees the most trade potential in the Baltic countries. In Lithuania he honored a late Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara, who was based in the country during World War II. The former vice consul to the consulate in Kaunas is credited with helping save about 6,000 European Jews from the Holocaust by issuing them travel visas. Abe and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov are promising to create opportunities for Japanese businesses in the Balkans. Among the topics of the negotiations are the expansion of the trade and economic partnership between Bulgaria and Japan, with an emphasis on the increase of Bulgarian exports, the attraction of Japanese investments and technologies. Abe hailed Bulgaria's efforts to bring the countries that were part of the former Yugoslavia into the European Union.

Borisov said options would be found for Japanese companies to implement large infrastructure projects in Bulgaria and across the Western Balkans. (ANSA).