| |
Japan, ASEAN celebrate 30-year
friendship
By Richard Hanson
TOKYO - Under a cold, wet December sky, Japan
and the 10 members the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) ended two days of shmoozing that
demonstrated to themselves "with deep satisfaction" that
they have "fostered a close and cooperative relationship
over the last 30 years, contributing to peace stability,
development and prosperity of the region".
If
George W Bush had been here at the special Japan-ASEAN
"Commemorative Summit", he might have offered a
distracted "Amen"; Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Bush's
recent guest in Washington, DC, might have gazed warily
on.
Because for these two days the leaders from
ASEAN and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were
busy cementing relations - described as the "dynamic and
enduring partnership in the new millennium" - while
keeping an eye focused on the United States and China.
On the one hand, the US remains the dominant
military and economic power in the region (most all
trade and finance is done in US dollars). On the other
hand, China in the past few years has risen as the
region's biggest competitor of the ASEAN states for
investment and trade. This leaves Japan and the ASEAN
states somewhere in the middle, straining at times to
develop relations that are mutually beneficial.
On the security side, Japan has taken steps that
strengthen relations. Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi
signed a document declaring its "intent to accede" to
the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia
(TAC) "upon completion of its necessary domestic
procedures". China and India joined the pact in October.
(Some criticized Japan for not having prepared
parliamentary approval before the summit meeting. ASEAN
adopted the regional security pact in 1976.)
Japan has also agreed to provide about US$3
billion in funds for projects in Southeast Asia over the
next three years. This includes $1.5 billion to promote
human-resources development programs and another $1.5
billion over three years for projects that aimed at the
development of the Mekong River region. This will also
assist in developing the
Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth
Area.
There will be other joint efforts to
conduct research on diseases, promoting peace and
friendship, opposing the spread of weapons of mass
destruction, fighting terrorism, combating piracy,
illicit drugs and trafficking in human beings.
The summit also served as a platform for
launching free-trade agreements (FTAs), which are the
bilateral deals that countries now favor over broader
compliance with international pacts under the World
Trade Organization. Japan and Singapore have already
signed one such agreement on trade.
Malaysia,
the Philippines and Thailand are embarking on their own
negotiations with Japan. The problem with bringing FTAs
to fruition is simple: both parties must give up
protected areas of trade. In Japan's case the stumbling
block is agriculture, which is highly protected in some
sectors such as rice by steep tariffs and other
barriers.
There are other sensitive areas. The
Philippines and Thailand, for example, would like freer
movements of professional workers. These include nurses
and other health caregivers and masseurs. Beyond ASEAN,
Japan is having trouble fixing the final terms of an FTA
with Mexico, where talks are stuck on such items as
orange and pork exports.
Japan, as both an
economic power and war-renouncing military power, has
its own problems in sorting out its priorities within a
region as diverse as ASEAN. As the summit symbolizes,
these go back three decades, when ASEAN was still young
and Japan was attempting to define its role in the
region as a "good cooperator" and "closest friend".
In 1977, Japan's late prime minister Takeo
Fukuda made a historic tour of ASEAN (then five
nations), attending its 10th anniversary meeting, and
ending with a speech in Manila that outlined what is
known as the Fukuda Doctrine. Tagging along as Fukuda's
"bag carrier" was a young Liberal Democratic Party
lawmaker, in the Fukuda Faction, named Junichiro
Koizumi.
Fukuda laid out five pillars of Japan's
policies toward Southeast Asia. Japan would not be a
cynical onlooker of ASEAN's efforts at solidarity and
wished to be a true friend. (Three years earlier, in
1974, prime minister Kakuei Tanaka had been met with
violent demonstrations in Bangkok and Jakarta.) Japan
resolved, as an economic power, to choose the course of
a military big power, "an experiment and challenge which
has no parallel in history".
Fukuda also
advocated "truly meaningful material and economic
relations" - the need for "heart-to-heart contact". And,
finally, he called for lasting peace and stability.
Those are just the sort of things that Koizumi
tends to say these days, though his options for peace
are narrowed by the real security threats that face
Japan and its decision to send troops to Iraq to help
its closest ally, the United States. His chief cabinet
secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, the son of Takeo Fukuda, joins
him in sorting out these problems.
(Copyright
2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
