Press Conference, 17 October 2006

Statements by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso
Statement by Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mitsuo Sakaba on the Awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank
Meeting between Dr. Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
Fifth meeting of the New Japan-China Friendship Committee for the 21st Century
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Host "Iftar Dinner"
Committee Formed to Welcome Chinese Cultural Festival 2006
Meeting between Mr. Christopher Hill, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Kenichiro Sasae
Follow-up Questions concerning the Fifth Meeting of the New Japan-China Friendship Committee for the 21st Century
Question concerning the East China Sea Gas Fields
Questions concerning the Upcoming Visit to Japan by the Oil Minister of the Republic of Iraq
Questions concerning the Possible Meeting between Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) Counterparts
Questions concerning Japan's Assessment of the Reemergence of Mr. James Baker, Former US Secretary of State
Questions concerning the Visit by Ms. Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, to Japan

I. Statements by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso

Mr. Taniguchi: Good afternoon and thank you all for coming. I know your interest may be elsewhere, but I must still walk you through some of the latest developments, and I will be brief.

Firstly, there are two statements by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso, one made on 14 October on the appointment of Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea (ROK) as the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the other made on 15 October on the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution concerning the nuclear test proclaimed by North Korea.

II. Statement by Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mitsuo Sakaba on the Awarding of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize to Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank

Mr. Taniguchi: Second, Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mitsuo Sakaba issued a statement on 13 October on the decision that Professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank will be awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize. He and his micro-credit bank have been known for some time pretty much widely also here in Japan. They deserve it.

Related Information (Press Release)

III. Meeting between Dr. Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

Mr. Taniguchi: Third, Dr. Gertrude Mongella, President of the Pan-African Parliament met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on 16 October. Dr. Mongella updated the Prime Minister on the activities she presides over.

IV. Fifth meeting of the New Japan-China Friendship Committee for the 21st Century

Mr. Taniguchi: Fourth, members of the New Japan-China Friendship Committee for the 21st Century, headed by its leader Mr. Yotaro Kobayashi, former top executive of Fuji Xerox, will visit China and meet their Chinese counterparts to have discussions from 19 to 21 October. This is a track-two dialogue going on between the two nations.

V. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Host "Iftar Dinner"

Mr. Taniguchi: Fifth, there will be what is called the Iftar Dinner hosted by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this evening, 17 October, inviting 44 representatives from the Islamic diplomatic corps in Tokyo.

Related Information (Press Release)

VI. Committee Formed to Welcome Chinese Cultural Festival 2006

Mr. Taniguchi: Sixth, The Government of the Peoples' Republic of China (PRC) and the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo will hold the China Culture Festival 2006 from 17 November for one month in Japan. They will show an impressive array of cultural performances to Japanese audiences, and in order to welcome the launch of the festival, the seven groups dedicated to the friendly relationships between Japan and the PRC, together with the Japanese Government and others, have formed a welcoming committee.

VII. Meeting between Mr. Christopher Hill, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Kenichiro Sasae

Mr. Taniguchi: Seventh and lastly, Mr. Christopher Hill, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs of the US Department of State, and Mr. Kenichiro Sasae, Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, met yesterday, 16 October, and reaffirmed that the two nations will continue working closely together to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1718.

VIII. Follow-up Questions concerning the Fifth Meeting of the New Japan-China Friendship Committee for the 21st Century

Q: I have a question about Mr. Kobayashi and the group that he is taking to China. I did not know about this, and I would like to ask for just a little more information. Who is going, what the group is, etc.

Mr. Taniguchi: As I said, that is a track-two dialogue channel launched by private citizens and run by private citizens on both sides, including academics, and Mr. Kobayashi has been chosen as the leader on the Japanese side. His counterpart from the Chinese side and Professor Ryosei Kokubu, a Keio University professor specializing in Chinese politics and the Japan-China relationship, are also included. They are discussing a lot of things in order for the two nations to better the bilateral relationship, and especially to deepen the mutual understanding. There have been many good ideas coming out of this discussion forum, such as to encourage journalists from both sides to meet together and mingle together to get to know one another better. Those are the points already made by this discussion forum, and they are going to go to China soon to have their fifth discussion.

Q: So they have been at it for five years?

Mr. Taniguchi: I do not think so. I think it has been something like three years, if my memory serves me well.

Q: Has Mr. Kobayashi left Fuji Xerox now?

Mr. Taniguchi: No, he is technically still with Fuji Xerox; he is something called "supreme advisor."

Q: I see. One more question on this. This group was created a couple of years ago, and it is a private-sector group, but obviously welcome to the Ministry. So the people in it are business people, academics, journalists? Is it that kind of group?

Mr. Taniguchi: That is pretty much accurate. As a rough number, 60% of them are business people, 20-30% are journalists and academics, and 10% are former government officials, something like that. The composition on the Chinese side is very much similar.

Q: Was it Mr. Kobayashi who thought up this forum? Where did the genesis for the formation of this group come from?

Mr. Taniguchi: Had it not been for the dedication of Mr. Yotaro Kobayashi, this could not have happened. He is very much committed to advancing the dialogue between Japan and China, so there may have been an official or two of this Ministry and others that asked Mr. Kobayashi to do this, but let me stress once again that if Mr. Kobayashi had not made up his mind really to commit himself in pursuing this, this could not have happened, so we owe a lot to his enthusiasm.

Q: The budget, then, is from the private sector?

Mr. Taniguchi: When they hold a meeting in Japan, the Government of Japan covers the cost to use the venue for the meeting. As for travel expenses and the like, the GoJ covers them for Japanese participants, and the PRC government, Chinese. The idea to launch the committee originated when then Prime Minister Junichro Koizumi met Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2003.

IX. Question concerning the East China Sea Gas Fields

Q: Have you already planned the next meeting with China about the East China Sea gas fields?

Mr. Taniguchi: There was an agreement made when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met the Chinese leaders that issues such as those, the gas field issue in East China Sea, will be discussed in a very much constructive, mutually beneficial fashion. That is the general principle and spirit given by the meetings between Prime Minister Abe and his counterparts, but when it comes to when the next meeting is going to take place, nothing has been decided yet, and how soon it is going to happen is still being discussed.

X. Questions concerning the Upcoming Visit to Japan by the Oil Minister of the Republic of Iraq

Q: I have heard that the Oil Minister of the Republic of Iraq will be visiting Japan from 22 to 24 October, and I wonder what kind of issues the Japanese side is going to talk about.

Mr. Taniguchi: The situation in Iraq is worrisome, and it is important for the Japanese Government to seek as many opportunities as possible to meet the leaders in the Iraqi Government. As far as I understand, he has not visited Japan before, and certainly Iraqi oil production and its situation will be among the matters to be discussed by the two Governments, but overall it is important for Japan to get the first-hand knowledge obtained by some of the leaders of the Iraqi Government. Also, given the importance that the Japanese Government has always placed upon its relationship with Iraq, the visit of the Iraqi Oil Minister that you mentioned would be an important one, so he and his Japanese counterparts in Japan will talk not only about the oil issue in Iraq, but also about the situation on the ground in Iraq, which obviously seems to be deteriorating.

Q: So you meant that Japan is of course interested in Iraqi oil, but at the same time, the Japanese Government wants to help them to improve the situation in their society?

Mr. Taniguchi: That is very much correct. You may remember that some of the Self-Defense Forces personnel, like people with the Air Self-Defense Force, are still in Iraq operating air-lift in Iraq, and so the Government of Japan is still very much part of the international effort to stabilize the situation, and so we have got to know much more about what is happening there.

Q: But the person who is coming is Oil Minister, and so still we are interested in what kind of issues related to oil will be discussed in the meeting.

Mr. Taniguchi: I can only say in general terms that in order for Iraq to produce as much oil as possible, there has got to be support provided by many countries, and Japan obviously is going to be one of the most important countries, both in terms of providing financial and technical support and in terms of Japan becoming once again one of the major consumers of Iraqi oil. Oil is actually the blood, if you like, of the Iraqi economy, so certainly the Iraqi Oil Minister and the officials of the Japanese Government involved will be talking about how best they could ameliorate the gas field situation in Iraq or the capacity to produce more oil both effectively and safely.

XI. Questions concerning Possible Meeting between Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) counterparts

Q: Plans are underway for Foreign Minister Aso to meet his ROK and US counterparts, possibly on Thursday. What significance does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs see in this kind of trilateral meeting, especially at this time? What are the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' expectations, and what kind of message do you want to send to North Korea?

Mr. Taniguchi: The message that the Government of Japan and the US Government and all others have tried to send to North Korea has never been clearer than the one pronounced by UN Resolution 1718, yet you have got a regime that is paying very little attention to the resolution, and so it seems to me that again and yet again the united front, notably comprising these three nations, has got to be made even more visible to the North Korea side, and a clear signal should be sent to Pyongyang never to even think of doing more harm, harm to themselves, actually.

Q: Could this trilateral meeting among Japan, the US and the ROK also be a way revving up pressure or pressuring China to do more in encouraging North Korea to come back to the Six-Party Talks?

Mr. Taniguchi: I am not in a position to speculate as to what China would make of this, but certainly the Chinese Government, as a full-fledged participant in the process that culminated in Resolution 1718, should be very much committed to implementing Resolution 1718. Passing the resolution is one thing, albeit it took a lot of effort, but implementing it is quite another, and the Chinese Government must be aware of the importance of implementing Resolution 1718. As to whether this could pose encouragement to the Chinese side, though, I am not making any speculations.

XII. Questions concerning Japan's Assessment of the Reemergence of Mr. James Baker, Former US Secretary of State

Q: I would like to revert to a topic that I brought up at one of these meetings very recently, namely the topic of Mr. James Baker, Former US Secretary of State. We hear a little bit more about him every day, but he has not caught the big headlines. He has said that he is not going to make any statement or come out with a proposal until after the elections. That is a little while yet, but is there interest here in this Ministry in the gradual emergence of Mr. Baker?

Mr. Taniguchi: I personally have paid a lot of attention to what he actually is doing, but this is irrelevant to what overall the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is thinking about his reappearance. Everyone knows, however, that he has been an extremely experienced international politician, and one of the best-networked people in the world, and so what he is doing must provoke a lot of attention among my colleague. But that is just it; when it comes to what sort of policy this Ministry has or does not have, I would say simply that there is no official assessment or policy view whatsoever of this Ministry toward the activities of Mr. James Baker.

Q: What we are looking at is, what is the thinking having to do with a possible tripartite division of Iraq? This is the thought that has been put forward, even in only a phrase or two, and this has tremendous importance for this country, insofar as you have just been say that Iraq is high on the agenda here. Has there been any reaction as far as you are concerned from your Minister or elsewhere in the Government having to do with the Baker proposal that we now see shaping up?

Mr. Taniguchi: Your question is whether or not there is any response?

Q: Whether you are reaching out, whether your Ambassador in the United States in reaching out to Mr. Baker, inviting him to dinner, and that kind of thing.

Mr. Taniguchi: Certainly, given his experience and importance and his close connections with the President. Bush family, Mr. Baker and his activities have to be viewed all the time as important. It is very much important for the Japanese Ambassador in the US and elsewhere that if possible they should try to invite Mr. Baker if there is such a chance, in order to see what he is looking at and thinking of, but beyond that, I should say what I told you before, again if I may, that there is no official kind of thing, be it an assessment or a policy response that I could say is coming from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

XIII. Questions concerning the Visit by Ms. Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, to Japan

Q: This is about US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice coming to Japan. If you have any information, could you brief on her schedule? Is she meeting Foreign Minister Aso in the afternoon tomorrow?

Mr. Taniguchi: I do not know if I can say much about it. It is going to be in the afternoon, but what time or how early, I am not sure yet.

Q: Do you yet know if there is any plan for a joint press conference, or any other opportunities for the press?

Mr. Taniguchi: I am sure we will come back to you about that, if there are any occasions for the press and so on, as soon as possible.

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