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2 Japanese PM sets out on a new-year
mission By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
was to set out on a new-year journey to Britain,
Germany, Belgium and France on Tuesday to drum up
international support for his country's hardline
stance on North Korea and bid for a long-coveted
permanent seat on the United Nations Security
Council, among other issues.
In Brussels,
Abe will hold talks with European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso. He will also visit
the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) for
talks with secretary general
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, becoming the first Japanese
premier to visit the headquarters of what was
originally established in 1949 as an anti-Soviet
alliance.
The pilgrimage to NATO
headquarters will give Abe an opportunity to pitch
a greater international-security role for Japan,
despite the constraints of the nation's
60-year-old post-World War II pacifist
constitution, a document he has vowed to revise.
In addition to North Korea's nuclear and
missile programs and past abduction of Japanese
citizens, and Japan's bid for a permanent Security
Council seat, international tensions over Iran's
nuclear-development program will also be high on
the agenda. The Security Council adopted a
resolution last month barring all countries from
selling materials and technology to Iran that
could contribute to its nuclear program.
Before flying back to Tokyo next Monday,
Abe will stop in the Philippines for the second
East Asia Summit in Cebu, which was postponed
early last month, purportedly because of an
approaching typhoon. On the fringes of the summit,
Abe is also expected to hold talks with Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh
Moo-hyun.
Abe has a reputation as a
headliner on Pyongyang, especially over the issue
of North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens in
the 1970s and 1980s to train spies. This earned
him a high degree of popularity in Japan, enabling
him to take the helm of the ruling Liberal
Democratic Party and government last September.
Many in Japan have found Pyongyang's actions
unforgivable, lighting a nationalist fuse here.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Taro Aso is
also to make a week-long visit to Romania,
Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia from Tuesday, and
North Korea will be one of the main topics of
discussion with leaders there. The simultaneous
visits to Europe by Abe and Aso are apparently
aimed at demonstrating to the world that Japan
attaches importance to its relations with European
countries, as well as those with Asia and the
United States, which Abe may visit this year.
Some pundits say Abe's upcoming European
tour reflects an "omnidirectional diplomacy" he
pursues. Others say that although the premier,
just like his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, is a
staunch advocate of a closer alliance with the US,
the former may be distancing himself from the
diplomatic stance of the latter, who critics say
was wholly devoted to strengthening ties with the
US, even at the expense of ties with other
countries, especially in Asia.
North
Korea and Security Council bid Alarmed by
North Korea's nuclear and missile tests last year,
Japan has revved up efforts to deploy a
missile-defense system in cooperation with the US.
The Abe government approved late last month a
budget plan for the next fiscal year starting in
April that calls for a sharp rise in spending on
the missile-defense system to 182.6 billion yen
(US$1.54 billion), up 42.7 billion yen, or 30.5%,
from the initial budget for the current fiscal
year.
Abe said recently, "The security
situation surrounding Japan has changed
drastically with the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and missiles as well as a series
of regional conflicts. To protect Japan's peace,
independence and democracy and the lives of the
Japanese, we need to further strengthen the
Japan-US alliance." Abe reiterated his pledge to
revise the US-drafted postwar constitution, which
imposes severe restrictions on Japan's military
activities abroad, while in office.
Within
days after North Korea's nuclear test on October
9, the Abe government responded by imposing its
own sanctions on the Stalinist state and actively
pushed with the US for the Security Council to
pass a resolution punishing Pyongyang with trade
and other sanctions.
Japan was able to
take the initiative because it held a
non-permanent seat on the council. But the
nation's two-year term expired at the end of last
month. During his upcoming European tour, Abe will
seek support among those nations with seats at the
council for Japan's position on the issues of
North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and its
past abduction of Japanese nationals so that it
can be reflected in council's future decisions.
This would obviously include Britain and
France, which are permanent members, but also with
Belgium, which is joining the Security Council
temporarily this year. Germany is also important,
since it has just taken over the rotating
six-month presidency of the European Union.
Germany will also hold the rotating one-year
presidency of the Group of Eight major nations
through the end of 2007.
"It is extremely
meaningful for Japan to strengthen cooperation
with countries such as those in Europe which share
common values with Japan," Abe said in a press
conference last Thursday, adding that Japan wants
to make contributions to solving the issues of
poverty, regional conflicts and the environment.
"I hope that Japan will gain trust through
international cooperation. I think that would lead
to Japan's becoming a permanent member of the [UN
Security Council] in the future."
While
Abe is courting Western Europe, Foreign Minister
Aso will visit Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and
Slovakia as the first step in implementing his
"arc of freedom and prosperity" initiative,
unveiled in November, to enhance Japan's relations
with emerging democracies in Asia and Europe and
actively support their democratic and economic
development. The four former communist nations in
Eastern Europe joined NATO in recent years.
Partnership with NATO Abe's
visit to NATO headquarters will likely open a new
era of cooperation between Japan and the 26-nation
alliance, which is currently at a turning point.
It comes in the wake of NATO's recent decision to
beef up cooperation with Japan and other
non-member countries.
At their summit in
the Latvian capital Riga in late November, NATO
leaders approved the Comprehensive Political
Guidance Policy. This political document
recognizes that the principal
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