Press Conference by the Press Secretary 12 October, 1999

1. Announcement on the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) held in Vienna
2. Announcement on the dispatch of international fact-finding teams to the fuel conversion facility where the nuclear accident occured in Tokaimura
3. The goals of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee Meeting on Assistance for the Palestinians
4. The upcoming ministerial-level meeting between Japan and the Republic of Korea
5. The visit of President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias of the Republic of Venezuela to Japan

1. Announcement on the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty held in Vienna

   Deputy Press Secretary Numata: Good afternoon. I have a comment on the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). Minister of Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono released a statement on this on 8 October. You will have the English translation of the statement by the end of the conference. As you know, former Foreign Minister Koumura attended this Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty which was held in Vienna from 6-8 October. Given that there was a Cabinet reshuffle, Mr. Koumura attended as a representative of the Government of Japan. He chaired this Conference, and in that capacity, exerted every effort to coordinate the final declaration and other matters. We sincerely welcome the adoption by consensus of the final declaration. By consensus I mean by those countries which have ratified the Treaty and also by those which have signed the Treaty but have not ratified the Treaty yet. We wanted this Conference to send a strong message to the international community for an early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and we do feel it very important for the international community to renew its endeavors toward an early entry into force of the Treaty. We also attach importance to the countries concerned, the United Nations, relevant international organizations and others keeping in close contact with each other and making further efforts to promote the ratification of this Treaty.

   We, in particular, strongly hope that the Nuclear-Weapon-States which have not yet ratified the Treaty, that is, the United States of America, the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, will ratify it as soon as possible. In the final declaration of the Conference, the participants agreed that ratifying states will select one of their number to promote cooperation to facilitate the early entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty through informal consultations with all interested countries. We intend to continue to be active in this regard. We believe that there is general consensus that Japan should be this one country to promote the cooperation to this end. We intend to further strengthen our overall diplomatic efforts, including the active use of Official Development Assistance (ODA) and the dispatching of missions to the countries concerned, especially those whose ratification is a prerequisite for the entry into force of the Treaty, in order to encourage them to sign and ratify that treaty. That is my first announcement.

   Related Information (Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation)
   
2. Announcement on the dispatch of international fact-finding teams to the fuel conversion facility where the nuclear accident occured in Tokaimura

   Mr. Numata: My second announcement is a brief one to say that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been in touch with us with the desire to send experts here for fact-finding purposes regarding this accident at the fuel conversion facility at Tokaimura. We are accepting this team which comprises three experts. As I said, they will be here for fact-finding purposes and they will be exchanging views with the people in the relevant authorities in Japan including the Science and Technology Agency, and they will also be meeting the people concerned in the area. They will also be seeing the area surrounding the facility. They will be arriving in Japan on 13 October and will be leaving Japan on 17 October. I might also note that in this connection the United States has also expressed its desire to send its team of experts for fact-finding purposes. We are agreeable to this idea; the actual dates for this visit by the United States' team are now being coordinated.

3. The goals of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee Meeting on Assistance for the Palestinians

   Q: Later this week there is going to be a joint conference on Palestine and Israel. I was wondering what Japan expects will take place at this conference and what are its goals?

   Mr. Numata: This Ad Hoc Liaison Committee Meeting on Assistance for the Palestinians is taking place on Thursday, 14 October and Friday, 15 October. This Committee has been entrusted with the task of coordinating and promoting the support to the Palestinians by various donor countries; one of the other purposes of this Conference is to ensure transparency in the activities of the donor countries as well as the recipients. This particular conference is taking place against the background of the agreement in Sharm-el-Sheikh to implement the Wye River Memorandum and to resume final status negotiations. Against this backdrop, we do feel that this is an important opportunity to place the efforts on the Palestinian track of the Middle East peace process on track, and to build the political momentum for the successful progress of this track of negotiations. We also feel that by hosting this meeting we will be able to demonstrate to the international community our active stance towards Middle Eastern peace, in particular through our assistance to the Palestinians, which to date amounts to roughly US$500 million. We have been extending Palestinian assistance since 1993, and to date it amounts to about US$500 million, and in terms of the share of Japan in the whole effort to support the Palestinians on the basis of the cumulative total from 1993 to 1998, Japan accounts for 12.7% which is comparable to the United States' share of 13.4% and the European Union share of 12.2%.

   There will be a number of issues to be taken up in this Conference; some are rather technical issues, but one of the items to which we attach importance is to study the situation with respect to how efficiently this aid by the donor countries is being used and how these various forms of assistance by various donors can best be coordinated. For this purpose, Japan sent a survey mission in conjunction with the World Bank to look into these matters and we will be presenting, together with the World Bank, the findings of this mission which will be a sort of recommendation for the purpose of ensuring even more efficient and effective use of this sort of assistance. There is also on the agenda the formulation of some kind of an action program for assistance to the Palestinians, because as you know, this involves not just the donors but the Palestinians as the recipients and also the Israelis. This action program presumably will look into what the Palestinians on their part would need to do, as well as the question of how the Israelis can best ensure the flow of people and goods to the West Bank and Gaza. Those are the main points and we look forward to the successful outcome of this conference.

   President Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority is coming, and of course Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono will be co-chairing the Meeting together with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Knut Vollebaek of the Kingdom of Norway. I understand that Foreign Minister David Levy of the State of Israel has been prevented from coming to this conference due to his engagements at home, that Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Nawaf Massalha of the State of Israel is coming and that there will be representatives from a number of other countries: the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the United States, the Russian Federation, the European Union, Canada, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Republic of Tunisia, as well as from the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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4. The upcoming ministerial-level meeting between Japan and the Republic of Korea

   Q: I have another question about a different conference. The weekend of the 23-24 October, ministerial-level talks are going to be held in South Korea at the Che Ju Islands. I realize that it is difficult to say at this point, but is the Prime Minister going, or is there a very high chance that he is going to this meeting? What are the issues that are expected to be taken up at this meeting? What do you expect to be accomplished?

   Mr. Numata: Let me address the latter part of your question first. The first ministerial-level meeting between Japan and the Republic of Korea took place in November of last year. That was in the wake of the very successful visit of President Kim Dae Jung of the Republic of Korea to Japan where the two leaders agreed on a broad range of very specific action programs for the future. As we try to go forward with this future-oriented effort, it is very important to have the ministers on both sides fully engaged and involved and that was the thinking behind this first meeting which took place in Kagoshima with the attendance of Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil of the Republic of Korea last year. Since then we had, again, a very successful visit by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi to the Republic of Korea in March this year, and Prime Minister Kim Jong Pil came to Japan in August. The dialogue between our two Governments at this very senior level is on track. The purpose of this meeting is to make sure that we will continue to go forward along this path. The question of the attendance of Prime Minister Obuchi at this meeting is still undecided, but we are looking actively into this question of the Prime Ministerial attendance, bearing in mind the sort of facts that I have just mentioned. We have not come to a decision yet.

   Q: When will you likely come to a decision?

   Mr Numata: As soon as we can. Incidentally, Foreign Minister Kono is planning to attend this meeting; of course, he is one of the very important ministers involved in all this. His schedule is being coordinated, but there is a high likelihood that after Che Ju he may be going on to Seoul. There is a meeting scheduled for 25 October, which is called the Asian-Pacific Democratic Leaders Forum, and Foreign Minister Kono is now thinking about attending this meeting. This, incidentally, is not a sort of government-to-government forum, but a gathering for democratic leaders in this part of the world. President Kim Dae Jung has been very instrumental in this Forum and you know Foreign Minister Kono has been a very close friend of President Kim Jae Jung. Sorry, I pre-empted your question.

   Q: What issues are likely to be discussed? Certainly North Korea will be on the agenda I imagine; what about trade, fishing and others?

   Mr. Numata: I suppose the whole broad range of Japan-Republic of Korea relations: trade, investment, people-to-people exchanges in various fields, cultural exchanges and so on. Japan-Republic of Korea cooperation in the international arena in general and of course, North Korea may very well be taken up depending on the situation that exists at the time. Given the nature of the meeting, the agenda for the first meeting last year was quite broad, so we will probably again have a broad range of issues to discuss.

   Related Information (Japan-Republic of Korea Relations)
   
5. The visit of President Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias of the Republic of Venezuela to Japan

   Q: I know that the Venezuelan President is here this week. I am not aware of any hugely pressing issues between Japan and Venezuela. What do you expect to come out of his visit?

   Mr. Numata: Apart from the hugely pressing issue of promoting the friendship between Japan and the Republic of Venezuela, I do not think that I can think of anything.