Press Conference by the Press Secretary 19 November, 1999

1. Announcement on the dispatch of Air Self Defense Forces aircraft for transporting relief material in the Republic of Indonesia
2. Signing of the ratification bill of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) by the Russian Federation
3. Specific responsibilities of the Self Defense Forces in the implementation of activities in Indonesia
4. Current state of Japan-Australia relations
5. Concerning the possibility of a visit to Indonesia by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi
6. Japan's position regarding its status within the United Nations

1. Announcement on the dispatch of Air Self Defense Forces aircraft for transporting relief material in the Republic of Indonesia

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. I have several comments to make. Firstly the Government of Japan decided today to dispatch its Air Self Defense Forces aircraft for the purpose of transporting relief material between Surabaya in Java and Kupang in West Timor. Actually, there has been a request from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for us to dispatch these aircraft to help their operations, and this operation is to help the relief efforts by the UNHCR. This is done in accordance with the International Peace Cooperation Law.

   It will involve about 150 Self Defense Forces personnel, four C-130Hs and one U-4, a small-scale multipurpose transport aircraft. The operation is to last for about three months. The main body of the Self Defense Forces personnel will be arriving in Surabaya on the 25 November. They will be there for about three months and they expect to return on 21 February 2000. This is another step in our effort to extend our support and cooperation to the international efforts to alleviate the situation in East Timor. We are, at the same time, giving active consideration to further humanitarian assistance in response to the United Nations appeal, which was issued on 27 October. In that context, I might recall that when Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United Nations was in Tokyo about a week ago, Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono said to Secretary-General Annan that we are in the process of considering humanitarian assistance of around US$28 million.

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2. Signing of the ratification bill of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) by the Russian Federation

   My second announcement concerns the report that President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation signed the ratification bill for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on the 17 November. We strongly hope that Russia will proceed quickly towards the actual ratification of this very important Treaty. As you may recall, Japan acted as the Chair of the Conference on Faciliating the Coming into Force of the CTBT, which was held in Vienna in October, and we do attach importance to the early entry into force of the CTBT. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our call to those countries which have not yet ratified the Treaty. There are seventeen of them. Out of those whose ratification is needed to put the treaty into effect, we would like to renew this call, especially with respect to the United States of America, Russia and the People's Republic of China.

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3. Specific responsibilities of the Self Defense Forces in the implementation of activities in Indonesia

   Q: What specific activities will the SDF personnel forces carry out?

   Mr. Numata: The UNHCR is in the process of formulating its program for transporting relief materials from Surabaya to Kupang in West Timor. Of course, this is being done in view of the fact that there has been a huge influx of refugees from East Timor to West Timor and although a number of these refugees are returning to East Timor, it is estimated that quite a substantial number may still remain in West Timor. They are living in camps and it is an environment which is very harsh, so there is a need for relief material to be sent to them. This does require a large-scale operation with a crew, which has both technical expertise and experience in this sort of thing, which can do this on an organized basis. It is in view of these factors that the UNHCR specifically requested our Government to see if we could send an Air Self Defense Forces transport aircraft. Their operation will be to transport these materials. We do not contemplate transporting refugees. It is conceivable though, that in the course of transporting these relief materials there may indeed arise a need to transport some of the UNHCR personnel. In such a case, if there is room on the aircraft, we will be prepared to do that.

   Q: How is it that Japan can send troops to West Timor and not East Timor?

   Mr. Numata: Because, if you think of what has been happening in East Timor as an armed conflict, in East Timor the Republic of Indonesia has been a party to the conflict. West Timor has always been a part of Indonesian territory. As far as we focus on West Timor, there is no armed conflict to which Indonesia is a party. I mention this in the context of what we call the five principles governing Japan's participation in peacekeeping operations. The first requirement is that there is actually an agreement of a ceasefire. That condition can be met with respect to West Timor, but with respect to East Timor there are some hard questions to be asked.

   Q: What is the status of the Diet debate on that second issue?

   Mr. Numata: I think that there are two issues involved. One is the de-freezing of the provision of what in popular parlance may be called infantry activities, but in Japanese parlance we call peacekeeping forces (PKF). The parties concerned are actively discussing the possibility. As far as I understand, I do not think a conclusion has been reached. But there is this agreement among the three parties, which comprise the present coalition, to try to work toward the lifting of such a freeze. Exactly how and when it might be done is still pending. We, on our part, hope that the issue will continue to be addressed positively by the parties concerned.

   Q: Are countries like Australia pressuring Japan to resolve this issue quickly?

   Mr. Numata: No, not to my knowledge.

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4. Current state of Japan-Australia relations

   Q: On the wider issue of Australia-Japan relations, there has been some discussion of this over the past 48 hours. What is the official view regarding this?

   Mr. Numata: You mentioned some discussion of this in the past 48 hours. I do not know whether I should limit the scope to one or two articles that have appeared in the Japanese newspapers, but perhaps I should address it from a somewhat wider context, in the sense that people have focused on the state of Japan-Commonwealth of Australia relations in the light of recent events. In a sense, in that process there has been some stocktaking on the state of Japan-Australia relations. In that context, I would like to make two general points and a couple of specific points.

   The first general point is that both Japan and Australia share the desire to work together as mature partners and to further build up their cooperative relationship in a wider context, and we would like to do this as mature partners. When I say in a wider context, I say that because Japan and Australia do share a number of common objectives and interests, and they encompass not just regional issues, such as East Timor, the Korean Peninsula or the Asian economic and financial crisis, but also global issues, such as nuclear non-proliferation and the international efforts toward a comprehensive nuclear test ban. So we do share a lot of common interests and objectives and that is something to which both Australia and Japan attach importance. My second general point is that, yes, there have been some comments about some of the issues that have arisen in the bilateral Japan-Australia relations with respect to fisheries and agriculture and so forth. With respect to each of these issues, there are positions taken respectively by Japan and by Australia, but what is important for us is not to lose sight of the fact that the state of Japan-Australia relations is very good, and these issues which may exist in certain parts of the Japan-Australia relationship are not adversely affecting the overall Japan-Australia relations. It is certainly our intention -- and we are sure that it is also Australia's intention -- not to let that happen. Those are the two general points.

   Now, on the specifics that have been commented on by some of the Japanese press, and I must say by some of the Australian press. There have been some comments made on the election of Ambassador to France Koichiro Matsuura as Secretary-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). There was an election, for which the governments concerned put up candidates. Election by definition is competition. We do note that Australia, for its part, put up its very excellent candidate, former Senator and former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who fought a very good battle and we admire him for that. When the election was over, and when Ambassador Matsuura was elected, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Alexander Downer of the Commonwealth of Australia quickly issued a press release and also wrote to Foreign Minister Kono saying that Australia looked forward to working closely with Japan and Ambassador Matsuura in his new capacity. It is our intention to work together with Australia towards to the shared objective of the reform of UNESCO now under the leadership of Ambassador Matsuura.

   My second point concerns East Timor. Again, on East Timor, it is clear that Japan and Australia share the same basic objectives -- that is regional stability -- on the basis of the recognition that the resolution of the East Timor issue is very important not only for the stability of Indonesia but for the stability of the region as a whole. Each of us, in its own way, is trying to extend whatever support it can to that end. We have been working very closely with Australia in tackling this very difficult challenge, and we appreciate the role being played by Australia, especially its active role in the multinational force. We, from our end, pledged to contribute about US$100 million to the Trust Fund of the multinational force so that we can help the participation of the developing countries in that multinational force, which has now been transformed into a military component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET). I note that Foreign Minister Downer also expressed his appreciation for this contribution on Japan's behalf. I would further note that we are helping these efforts in East Timor in other ways. I mentioned earlier the dispatching of the Self Defense Force aircraft to transport relief material. If I am correct, Australia did something similar in terms of sending its transport aircraft to East Timor. I would also note that with respect to the very important task of building the administration and government structure under the aegis of UNTAET, we have decided to send a very experienced development expert, Mr. Takahashi, as the man who will be in charge of a very important part of that operation. So in these areas we are working closely together with Australia, if not in identical ways, for shared purposes.

   Q: Just one thing. The allegation has been made that the Australian Prime Minister rang Prime Minister Obuchi for ten days continuously on the Self Defense Forces issue. Is that the case?

   Mr. Numata: I really doubt that it is true. What matters is the outcome, which is our announcement that we would contribute US$100 million to the Trust Fund. This is really our own way of complementing Australia's effort. Australia took the leadership in terms of actually heading the multinational force and also dispatching several thousand Australian military personnel to East Timor. At the same time, there was a general recognition that the countries in the Asia-Pacific region should play a substantive role in this effort. There are countries in the region which wanted to take part in it but were hampered for financial reasons, and our contribution to the Trust Fund is designed to help alleviate that difficulty.

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5. Concerning the possibility of a visit to Indonesia by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi

   Q: I heard in a recent report that Prime Minister Obuchi will visit Indonesia later this month. Is it true?

   Mr. Numata: No, I cannot confirm that. There is no decision made on that. Though if I may read the mind of Prime Minister Obuchi, he may entertain that desire, but no decision has been reached. Partly because this also happens to be a period of intense parliamentary deliberations.

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6. Japan's position regarding its status within the United Nations

   Q: I also read a report that former Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama met Kofi Annan. He mentioned that Japan should get more status in the United Nations, because it pays more financial contributions. Is this the Japanese position on the issue?

   Mr. Numata: I cannot recall exactly what Mr. Taro Nakayama said to Secretary General Annan, and actually Mr. Nakayama is a Member of Parliament as opposed to a member of the Government. But it is true that among some quarters, including parliamentarians, there is some feeling that the very substantial contribution that Japan has been making, especially in the area of Official Development Assistance (ODA), should be given due consideration in the international political arena. Some of these people may wish to establish some sort of link between this and the question of Japan's aspirations to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. In a way that represents some of the feelings that may exist among the Japanese public, in the sense that our ODA comes from the taxpayer's pocket. That is a very different question from the question of whether it is Japanese Government policy. It is not Japanese Government policy. We do feel that we do have the desire - and that we are perfectly justified in having the desire -- to be represented as a permanent member of the Security Council. We feel certain that we can make a contribution in that regard. But the question of how we go about obtaining that objective is through diplomatic efforts, and through intense consultations with other members of the United Nations, including the current members and other countries.

   I think that what is at stake is the question of public perception in the sense that some Japanese people feel that perhaps there is something unjust in Japan not being represented as a permanent member of the Security Council, despite the very substantial contribution that we make in other fields. But that is a factor that we may need to take into account as a Government in steering our public and in managing our policy. However, that is only a factor and is not a part of official Government policy.

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