Press Conference, 13 March 2007

The Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"
Questions concerning the Six-Party Talks
Follow-up questions concerning the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"

I. The Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"

Assistant Press Secretary Noriyuki Shikata: Good afternoon. At the outset I have one announcement regarding the start up meeting for the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity" and the Third Conference for Confidence Building between the parties from the State of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Tomorrow, 14 March, Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso will host a ministerial-level startup meeting for the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity," which will be attended by Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian representatives. Participants will include Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Israel Shimon Peres; Dr. Sa'eb Erekat, Head of the Negotiations Affairs of the PLO; and Special Advisor of His Majesty King Abdullah II, Mr. Farouk Kasrawi of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also host the Third Conference for Confidence-Building between the Israelis and the Palestinians from 14 March to 15 March in Tokyo. Participants of the conference include Dr. Tatsuo Arima, Special Envoy of the Government of Japan, Professor Ryoji Tateyama, Professor of the National Defense Academy, and other specialists from the Japanese side, Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian sides. The participants include academic and business circles. We are hoping that these meetings will contribute to confidence building between the Israelis and the Palestinians, one of Japan's policy pillars for promoting the Middle East peace process. Regarding the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity," we are distributing the background paper, which we announced when then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the Middle Eastern region.

Related Information (Press Release)

II. Questions concerning the Six-Party Talks

Q: Regarding next week's Six-Party Talks, I believe it is scheduled to start on the 19th. Following the Japan-North Korea talks in Hanoi which ended in no progress, how does the Japanese Government feel about pursuing the abduction issue as well as the nuclear issue in the next round?

Mr. Shikata: Of course our position is unchanged regarding the importance that we attach to the abduction issue. We were hoping that we could make some progress in the context of Japan-North Korea meetings, however it turned out that we have not seen substantial progress. The result of the working group will be reported to the plenary session and we will probably have to hold another round of the working group between Japan and North Korea so that we can make progress on this matter. We believe that it is in the interests of North Korea to make progress on this issue. They have their own stakes, from their viewpoint.

Q: Are there any chances for the Japanese Government to pursue the normalization talks or other pending issues regardless of the progress in the abduction issue?

Mr. Shikata: We think that in the context of the normalization talks it is essential that we make progress in the abduction issue, so we do not think that the normalization part of the talks will make progress as long as the abduction issue will not see any tangible progress.

III. Follow-up questions concerning the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the concept of the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"

Q: On a totally different topic, I want to go back to the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity" initiative. Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in a news conference just this morning that in the initiative Japan is going to launch, Japan has expressed that it will contribute US$100 million. I was wondering what he was referring to; was he referring to the agro-industrial park in the West Bank? If you could give us an overview of the whole project; are there not a lot of projects inside the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"?

Mr. Shikata: Under Japan's concept for creating the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity," we are coming up with tentative ideas which envision establishing an agro-industrial park, and we are ready to prepare feasibility studies and look into this matter in more detail. Of course, the private sector is welcome to participate in this project. Our idea is that products will be transported to a distribution center to be built on the Jordanian side and then shipped out to markets abroad. This will hopefully facilitate regional economic exchanges and, hopefully, integration. Also, the second type of project, we wish to facilitate the transportation of goods; that is, products produced in this agro-industrial park, to distribution centers of goods. This is something which has the potential for expansion for the future and we are interested in providing Official Development Assistance (ODA) to realize this concept.

Q: Just to confirm; these two projects were proposed by the Japanese, and the Jordanians, Palestinians, and Israelis went aboard on this proposal?

Mr. Shikata: That is right. This is Japan's proposal, and of course, it is very important that those stakeholders in the region will own this project. Japan is the country that supports the process but, at the end of the day, it is very important that the people in the region will think that this is important for them and will make their own efforts. This is going to be a kind of joint project among Japan and the concerned parties in the region, as well as the private sector.

I should add that Japan's ODA is a kind of catalyst for economic cooperation in the region and that may, in the longer term, contribute to confidence building between Israelis and the Arab people in the region. We are hoping that this kind of initiative will create positive cycles in the region, including from a political perspective.

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