Remarks by H.E. Mr. Taro Aso, Minister for Foreign Affairs at the 60th Meeting of the Board of Counselors at Nippon Keidanren

December 25, 2006
Japanese

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been fortunate in having worked with you over the past year under the leadership of Mr. Mitarai. As I begin my remarks today let me once more extend to you my sincere thanks for your many efforts over the past year.

With this being a typical end-of-the-year gathering, I gave a lot of thought to what to say in my address to you. After some reflection, I decided that I would like to share with you what I consider the top three positive news stories of 2006.

Now, as politician Taro Aso, there are a few more stories I wouldn't mind adding. But as Foreign Minister, if I were asked to name the three most significant positive news stories of the past year, this would be my list. Now, I want to emphasize here that these are what I would consider the three most important positive news stories of the past year, so I won't be touching upon anything to do with the country firing off ballistic missiles or conducting nuclear tests.

One of my top three would certainly be my visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium last May during the Golden Week holidays. I attended the North Atlantic Council and delivered an address that highlighted clearly the fact that Japan is ready to work together with NATO on various issues.

However, de facto cooperation with NATO is already underway on virtually a daily basis in the scorching heat of the Indian Ocean, in an environment so harsh that you can literally fry an egg on the deck of the ship.

It requires a high degree of skill and expertise to line ships up exactly alongside each other on the open ocean and conduct refueling operations. Yet for five years already, Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force has been doing just that for the naval ships of NATO member countries, and the MSDF has been held in very high regard for its work, with Japan's techniques even being referred to as "the hand of God."

With this marking the first time that a Japanese Foreign Minister even addressed the North Atlantic Council, it goes without saying that it was unprecedented for Japan to propose that it work together with NATO. Yet that proposal was a catalyst that built up the momentum for us to consider, in light of the current situation, what exactly NATO and Japan can do cooperatively.

Another of my top three would be my visit to Baghdad in August. As you are all well aware, the restoration of public safety in Baghdad is a challenge of significant proportions. The United States is also carefully reevaluating the directions it should pursue in its Iraq policy.

Japan started providing assistance to Iraq in consideration of its own national interests. While we have recalled our Ground Self-Defense Force from Iraq, the Air Self-Defense Force continues to deliver assistance and we are still providing ODA and other forms of aid. I considered it necessary to convey this personally to the people of Iraq and gain their renewed understanding of Japan's position. All in all, it was a somewhat pulse-pounding type of sudden visit, but I believe that through that trip I was able to carry out my duties successfully.

What made me particularly pleased was that the cabinet ministers I met with during my trip were unanimous in their praise for the fine esprit de corps that characterizes the Self-Defense Force. The SDF was in Samawah for quite some time, but during that entire interval, there was not a single incident of misconduct of any sort, including sexual assault, desertion, or even skipping out on a restaurant bill. My friends, it is these young men and women of the SDF that have raised the degree of trust and confidence in Japan. We should all be careful not to say things like "Young people today....".

The third of my top three positive news items for 2006 would be, upon my reappointment as Foreign Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, stating Japan's "value oriented diplomacy" in concrete terms for the first time, along with declaring Japan's intention to "create an arc of freedom and prosperity." The diplomacy I have been conducting has had as its basic focus over the years the three focal areas of the United States, the United Nations, and Asia. Recently, in addition to these, I have been working to establish a new axis for diplomacy in which Japan promotes value-oriented diplomacy in the countries that line the outer rim of Eurasia.

And so these are the top three positive stories of the past year as I see them. I consider the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' work as having helped lay the groundwork for the global expansion of Japanese corporations.

No country has been helped by, or grown as a result of, global distribution or the unrestricted movement of financial resources to the extent that Japan has. Moreover, Japan has benefited enormously from the world being peaceful and stable--that is to say, from the fact that it is a given that price mechanisms function properly.

What this implies is that when some sort of instability starts to impact the global economic system, we should assist in rectifying the situation. Yet this is not something to be done by Japan alone; this is something that countries sharing common values should join hands to address--not only Japan and the United States under the Japan-US alliance, but also India, Australia, the EU, or NATO.

In 2007, Japan will be launching negotiations to conclude economic partnership agreements, or EPAs, with India and Australia. The implications of this go far beyond the realms of economics or trade.

Imagine for a minute Japan being intimately and intricately connected with those two countries. All three of our nations are committed to strengthening the global economic system as democracies and market economies. To this, add the Japan-US alliance, the major pillar supporting the Asia-Pacific region, and now reconsider that image you had of intimate and intricate connections. What these efforts will create is a central axis for this global system connected by the ocean.

Furthermore I believe that it is necessary for China as one of the countries in this group, to engage in the formulation of common rules, and the fact that we are doing this in the present will lay what is literally a foundation that will lead to greater stability for Japan twenty, thirty, even fifty years into the future. If you will forgive me for being a bit dramatic, we can say that thinking in this way adds an air of urgency to the situation--cracking the whip against ourselves, so to speak, to make a stronger push forward.

With 2007, the Year of the Boar, now almost upon us, I would like to take this opportunity to look to the image of a boar for a moment, but first I want to touch on one final point.

On many occasions I have spoken about how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been making great efforts in recent years to support individual companies within the context of public-private sector cooperation. In fact last year at this exact occasion I believe I said to you that when your companies move into overseas markets or pursue overseas opportunities, particularly in developing countries, you should use our embassies for receptions and exhibitions. You engender a completely different degree of trust and confidence in Japan by holding an event at the embassy rather than by holding it at a hotel.

Mikimoto, of international fame in fine pearls, made use of our facilities in Bulgaria, hosting a reception at our embassy there. We have also had the opportunity to host sake appreciation lectures and tastings at our facilities in China, Seattle, and London through the participation of prominent brewers and other people in the sake industry. In addition, our embassy in Denmark has hosted an exhibition on bicycles to promote their sale in that country.

Yet I am afraid that currently, these are the only examples that I am able to give you, and so it strikes me that we have not yet gotten this message out broadly enough. On this occasion, let me again urge you to use our embassies for receptions and exhibitions as much as possible.

In closing my remarks today, I would like to ask for your ongoing understanding, your support, and, indeed, your critical evaluations in the months ahead. I wish you the best as we ring in the new year.