Press Conference by the Press Secretary 29 June, 1999

1. Announcement on a meeting to be held between the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo
2. Dispatch of civilian police officers to the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET)
3. Activities in which the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo will participate
4. Reaction of other countries to the Time magazine nomination by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi
5. Relations between Japan and the Commonwealth of Australia with the impending visit to Japan of the Prime Minister of Australia
6. Japan's stance on the current situation in Kashmir involving the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
7. Ongoing discussions concerning the dispatch of a Japanese civilian team to Kosovo

1. Announcement on a meeting to be held between the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. I have an announcement on the Foreign Minister level meeting to take place in New York, to be hosted by Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the United Nations (UN). This meeting is taking place in New York tomorrow, on 30 June. The purpose of this meeting, according to the Secretary-General, is to start an advisory body regarding United Nations activities in the peace implementation in Kosovo. In fact, the Secretary-General himself has characterized this meeting as the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo. There will be 12 countries and three international organizations participating in this meeting, the 12 countries being the G8 countries plus the People's Republic of China, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Republic of Turkey and the Hellenic Republic, and the three international organizations being the European Union (EU), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC). From Japan, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura will be attending this meeting as the representative of the Government of Japan. I might add a footnote here in the sense that we have been saying for some time that Japan is willing to contribute actively to the rehabilitation of Kosovo and to alleviating the plight of the refugees there. In the course of the G8 Summit in Cologne, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was saying that Japan had an active interest, not only in terms of assistance for the rehabilitation of Kosovo and the return of the refugees, but also in the sense of participating in the civilian peace implementation process. With that in mind, we have an interest in taking part in the decision-making processes regarding the civilian presence in Kosovo. This Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo meeting is quite in line with the interest that we have been expressing. That is my first announcement.

2. Dispatch of civilian police officers to the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET)

   Mr. Numata: My second announcement has to do with East Timor. As you know, on 5 May the Government of the Republic of Indonesia, the Government of the Republic of Portugal and the United Nations agreed to have a direct balloting in August to ascertain the will of the East Timorese people on the proposed constitutional framework providing for special autonomy. In order to organize and conduct this direct balloting, otherwise called "popular consultation," the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) was established on 11 June in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1246, comprising political, electoral, civilian police, military liaison, information, administrative/financial and human rights components. This mission will last until 31 August. We have had a request from the UN to dispatch civilian police officers to this Mission.

   We decided today to dispatch three civilian police officers to UNAMET based on the International Peace Cooperation Law. These police officers will be leaving Japan on 4 July. They will have four-day training in Darwin in the Commonwealth of Australia, and they will arrive at Dili in East Timor on 9 July. They will be stationed at different places to work for about two months and return to Japan in early September. While in East Timor they will carry out duties including giving advice to the Indonesian police on their duties. Their duties are actually spelled out in the Security Council Resolution. We have been saying for some time that we would like to extend as much support as possible to the efforts toward a peaceful solution to the East Timor issue. This dispatching of civilian police officers is a manifestation of that. In addition to this dispatch, we have already decided on the dispatch of a political affairs officer, who is already on the ground and is in fact a Bahasa Indonesia expert. We have also announced a contribution of US$10.11 million assistance to the United Nations Trust Fund to finance a part of this direct balloting, and we have also announced an extension of an assistance in kind of 2,000 radio sets.

   Related Information (Japan-Indonesia Relations)
   
3. Activities in which the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo will participate

   Q: Are there specific proposals for the Kofi Annan body as to what it is going to achieve?

   Mr. Numata: I think they will thrash it out when they meet, but the general idea is that when you talk about UNAMET, there will be decision-making, which will be within the UNAMET, and incidentally we have also expressed our interest in participating in that process as well. So we are in the process of examining the possibility of sending our own personnel to the UNAMET on the civilian side. What this body, the Friends of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, is designed to do is that the major participants in this exercise will get together and discuss with the Secretary-General ideas about what this civilian presence is supposed to do and to give general directions and guidance to the UN activities. That is what we would like to see this body achieve and that is the spirit in which we will be taking part in this program.

   Q: Are we talking about a civilian presence or a military presence?

   Mr. Numata: Our main interest is in the civilian presence, although there is a military presence as well.

4. Reaction of other countries to the Time magazine nomination by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi

   Q: How do you view the Obuchi nomination in Time magazine of Emperor Showa as person of the 20th century? Are you concerned about outrage from China and the Republic of Korea?

   Mr. Numata: We are talking about history, and when we talk about history you no doubt realize that in the post-War years, the Emperor, under the post-War Constitution, has been the symbol of the state and the unity of its people. As such, he has been the object of respect from the Japanese people. As far as I can gather from this nomination in Time magazine, that is precisely the spirit which Prime Minister Obuchi reflected. I am not aware of any expression of outrage from any of our neighboring countries at this particular point in time.

   Related Information (Profile of Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi)
   
5. Relations between Japan and the Commonwealth of Australia with the impending visit to Japan of the Prime Minister of Australia

   Q: The Australian Prime Minister is arriving here next Monday. What is the Japanese Government expecting of that?

   Mr. Numata: We do have a very fruitful, cooperative relationship with the Commonwealth of Australia. We do have in fact a very solid basis for that. In 1995, at the time of the Australia-Japan Ministerial Committee (AJNC), there was agreement on this Japan-Australia Partnership Declaration. In 1997 we carried it further and agreed on a whole set of agenda entitled the Japan-Australia Partnership Agenda, which has set out the possibilities for further cooperation in 18 areas. Now we are in 1999, just one year away from the new millennium, although I hasten to add that there is some controversy as to how you define the millennium. We do feel that this is indeed a very opportune time for our two countries to share a vision for the future-orientated partnership between Japan and Australia. So in that spirit, I expect that the two leaders will be discussing various aspects of the Japan-Australia bilateral relationship, Japan-Australia participation in the Asia-Pacific region, and also Japan-Australia cooperation in the global community. In essence, we are trying to build a future-orientated partnership and we look forward to the broadening and deepening of this partnership. What sort of specific subjects may be discussed will be up to the leaders, but on the basis of what I have said, I am sure they will be looking into possible new areas of cooperation. You will ask what, for example, and my answer is wait until the two leaders meet.

   On the Asia-Pacific scene, we do share a strong commitment to the APEC process. I remember Australia was very instrumental in starting the whole process. I remember the first meeting of APEC Foreign Ministers in Canberra in 1989, which I had the pleasure of attending. We have also shared a common interest in dealing with the Asian economic and financial turmoil. We also share a common interest in the situation in Indonesia and East Timor. Australia has been very active with respect to East Timor. We have also been active, as indeed shown by my announcement earlier. We also share a common interest on the whole question of Asia-Pacific security, we both are allies to the United States of America. They may have some common ground on which to discuss these issues. On the global front, we would both like to do as much as possible for the global community as responsible global partners. We have been working together in a number of areas - disarmament and arms control, environment, United Nations reform, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) - so there is no dearth of issues for the two leaders to discuss.

   Q: There are only a few areas of trade friction - rice, tuna fishing and a couple of others. Is there any attempt to try to solve the differences on either or both of those two issues?

   Mr. Numata: You mentioned rice and I think you also mean the general area of agriculture as we go into the next round of trade negotiations. I am sure, given our shared commitment to the WTO, it is quite possible that the two leaders will discuss the next round of negotiations, and I think that will be the context in which the two leaders will be approaching the questions of trade. You mentioned tuna fish - Southern Blue Fin tuna. On that, we have been discussing this with Australia and also with New Zealand. Our discussions on the subject have not come to a successful conclusion. The Government of Australia earlier this month announced that it has decided to institute legal action over this and we are in the process of further clarifying exactly what courses may be followed. We are in touch with the Government of Australia and also the Government of New Zealand on this. Japan continues to approach this issue with a view to reaching a satisfactory resolution through negotiations. We have not given up on negotiations, so we will continue to make maximum efforts to that end. One other important point, we do not think that this particular issue should or could mark the overall friendly, fruitful, cooperative relationship between Japan and Australia.

   Related Information (Japan-Australia Relations)
   
6. Japan's stance on the current situation in Kashmir involving the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

   Q: Is Japan in any way cooperating with President Clinton, who is trying to persuade Pakistan to withdraw intruders from the Indian side of the line of control in Kashmir?

   Mr. Numata: The question of Kashmir is a matter of international concern. It is a matter of concern to the G8 countries, as shown by the references in the documents which came out of the G8 Summit in Cologne. In the G8 statement on regional issues, the G8 leaders expressed their deep concern about the continuing military confrontation in Kashmir following the infiltration of armed intruders, which violated the line of control. The leaders went on to say that they regard any military action to change the status quo as irresponsible. They went on to call for the immediate end of these actions, the restoration of the line of control and for the parties to work for an immediate cessation of the fighting. We associated ourselves fully with this statement. In the form of taking part in this collective deliberation of the issue within the framework of the G8, and in the form of associating ourselves fully with that statement, we are working together with like-minded countries in our appeal for peace with respect to this issue. Of course, we take advantage of whatever opportunities present themselves in our bilateral contacts with the countries concerned to make this appeal.

   Related Information (Japan-Asia Relations)
   
7. Ongoing discussions concerning the dispatch of a Japanese civilian team to Kosovo

   Q: Have you made a decision on the Japanese civilian team to be sent to Kosovo?

   Mr. Numata: That is under consideration at the moment, and we are in fact in touch with the United Nations about this. We would like very much to have a visible Japanese presence in the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UMIK). By a visible presence I mean we would like to have someone in a senior post in the civilian presence of UMIK. We are in touch with the United Nations Secretariat about the details of that and since this particular matter is still in the process of being coordinated with the United Nations Secretariat, I cannot go into further detail. But we would like to have a senior presence there, and we might have somebody else there as well at a less senior level.