Press Conference, 4 September 2007

Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting
7th Meeting of the Japan-China Joint Committee on Environmental Protection and Cooperation
Dispatch of Election Monitoring Mission for Presidential and General Elections in Guatemala
Telephone conferences held by Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura
Location of the International Media Center of the Hokkaido-Toyako Summit
China's return to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and participation in the United Nations Military Expenditure Account System
Questions concerning the APEC Meetings
Questions concerning climate change policies
Questions concerning North Korea
Question concerning Japan's intentions regarding investment and APEC
Questions concerning North Korea and the Six-Party Talks

I. Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Ministerial Meeting

Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi: Good afternoon, thanks very much for coming.

Firstly, today, Tuesday, 4 September, Mr. Nobutaka Machimura, Minister for Foreign Affairs, is visiting Sydney, Commonwealth of Australia, to attend the 19th APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Ministerial Meeting. This is his first trip abroad since assuming office.

The Meeting will take place for two days from tomorrow, Wednesday, 5 September to Thursday, 6 September, and foreign ministers and related officials from the 21 APEC economies will participate in the Meeting.

During his visit, Mr. Machimura will discuss such issues as the "WTO (World Trade Organization)," "APEC-wide Regional Economic Integration," and "Structural Reforms in the member economies" with the participating ministers, and will also hold bilateral talks with some of them. For instance, he is meeting the Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Singapore and Australia today.

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II. 7th Meeting of the Japan-China Joint Committee on Environmental Protection and Cooperation

Mr. Taniguchi: Secondly, also today, Tuesday, 4 September, Japan and the People's Republic of China are holding in Tokyo the 7th Meeting of the Japan-China Joint Committee on Environmental Protection and Cooperation.

Mr. Masahiro Kohara, Deputy Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs heads the Japanese side, and Mr. Tang Ding Ding, Deputy Director-General of the International Cooperation Department of the Administration, the Chinese side.

This Committee came into being as a result of the Japan-China Environmental Protection and Cooperation Agreement concluded in 1994 and it is to discuss the environmental policies of the two countries and bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the field of environment. Today's meeting is mainly to follow up on the Joint Statement by Japan and China on the Further Enhancement of Cooperation for Environmental Protection announced in April this year when Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao of China visited Japan.

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III. Dispatch of Election Monitoring Mission for Presidential and General Elections in Guatemala

Mr. Taniguchi: Thirdly, in response to a request from the OAS or the Organization of American States, Japan has decided to send to the Republic of Guatemala four election observers in order for them to monitor the country's Presidential and General Elections due to take place on Sunday, 9 September.

Japan has been supporting Guatemala's efforts to strengthen democracy and has continued extending cooperation for rural development and sustainable economic development. The upcoming elections will be the third of their kind since the conclusion of the final peace agreement. The Japanese election monitors will participate as part of the OAS monitoring mission in such activities as monitoring the voting and ballot counting in the capital, Guatemala City, and its environs.

In addition to the dispatch of the election observers, Japan has also extended grassroots human security grant aid totaling about US$86,000 to the OAS Office in Guatemala, which monitors the elections.

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IV. Telephone conferences held by Minister for Foreign Affairs Nobutaka Machimura

Mr. Taniguchi: Fourth, upon his appointment as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Machimura held telephone conferences with his counterparts from 11 countries and two international organizations, namely, Australia, Canada, China, the French Republic, the Republic of India, the Italian Republic, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Singapore, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, the European Commission, and the United Nations.

V. Location of the International Media Center of the Hokkaido-Toyako Summit

Mr. Taniguchi: Two more points. Number one, the Government of Japan has decided to establish the international media center of the Hokkaido-Toyako G8 Summit to be held in 2008 at Rusutsu Resort, Rusutsu Village, Abuta District, Hokkaido. That is number one.

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VI. China's return to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and participation in the United Nations Military Expenditure Account System

Mr. Taniguchi: One more. There is a statement by the Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on China's return to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and participation in the United Nations Military Expenditure Account System that reads as follows:

On August 31, China expressed its will to return to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms and participate in the United Nations Military Expenditure Account System, and also submitted annual reports concerning both systems. Japan values China's return to the UN Register of Conventional Arms and participation in the UN Military Expenditure Account System as a first step of the Government of China's efforts toward confidence building in the international community in respect of the arms trade and the improvement of transparency in armaments. Japan hopes that China will implement them steadily in the future.

The UN Register of Conventional Arms was established by a resolution submitted to the UN General Assembly by Japan in 1991, in cooperation with the EC (European Community) countries at that time. Through such occasions as Group Governmental Experts meetings, Japan has been making requests to China, one of the major arms trade countries, to submit data to the Register annually.

VII. Questions concerning the APEC Meetings

Q: I have some questions about the APEC meeting. What is Japan's expectation to be accomplished at those ministerial meetings and also by the Prime Minister at his heads-of-state meeting?

Mr. Taniguchi: There are a number of tasks that member economies of APEC are supposed to tackle. Those include, for instance, discussing an APEC-wide free trade area--the so called FTA AP--and structural reforms. "Structural reforms" means that in order for enhancing foreign direct investment among the member economies and also in order to enhance the people-to-people exchanges among the members there has got to be improvement in the domestic economic and political structures in the member economies. Unless those changes take place, you cannot expect fully that the flow of capital and human beings would be further enhanced. This is going to be a very good opportunity for foreign ministers to review the process, which has actually been going on over the last year on such occasions as when they had meetings among the senior government officials of the member economies. First and foremost the foreign ministerial meetings, which Foreign Minister Machimura is going to join, are going to be a very good opportunity for the member nations' foreign ministers to wrap up the processes and review the accomplishments and to take stock of what has been discussed and what should further be discussed.

About the Leaders Meeting, I think it is a little bit too early for me to say.

Q: There is a report that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might meet with President Bush of the United States of America and Prime Minister Howard of Australia. Is that going to happen?

Mr. Taniguchi: I think it is a straightforward question; nonetheless it is a little bit hard for me to say at this point because of the diplomatic schedule. Once again I have to say it is a little bit early to make any concrete announcement on that.

VIII. Questions concerning climate change policies

Q: One more thing, at the APEC Meeting climate change is going to be a major topic, and I think it is fine that the topic is discussed at this kind of international place, but it seems that now the focus is the new post-Kyoto Protocol framework, while major emitters are not doing anything to reduce the current emissions and that Japan of course hosted the Kyoto event 10 years ago -- How does Japan feel about it?

Mr. Taniguchi: Prime Minister Abe announced a couple of months ago his signature proposal, called Cool Earth 50. The "50" part is a double entendre, which means two things: by the year 2050 the emissions have to be reduced by 50 percent. The framework is designed so that all major emitters can join and should join. It is the understanding of the Japanese Government that, as you pointed out, unless the new framework can accommodate emitters, both developed and developing, the framework is not going to be effective. The Japanese proposal is to encourage countries such as the US, China, India -- major emitters -- to take part in the framework, and it is to cut a very good balance between the preservation of the environment and the enhancement of economic development. I believe that if there is an opportunity, Prime Minister Abe is going to raise the point and try to persuade his colleagues of how important it is for them to come up with an effective post-Kyoto framework.

Q: When it comes to actually reducing emissions is there anything that Japan can do or would like to do?

Mr. Taniguchi: I believe that there are many, many things that Japan can do and, indeed, Prime Minister Abe's proposal is very much based on a conviction that by utilizing the technological capacities that Japan and other countries have there has got to be a better solution to achieve two purposes: one, to reduce the emissions; and two, to try and give steam to the engine of growth of the world economy.

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IX. Questions concerning North Korea

Q: One more thing, on the US-North Korea meeting. I am not very clear whether the US and North Korea actually agreed that the US de-list North Korea as a terrorist-supporting state.

Mr. Taniguchi: What US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill has been telling us on the Japanese side is that he and his colleagues on the US side are not interested at all in jeopardizing the US-Japan relationship and we have heard nothing that the US actually agreed on de-listing North Korea from the terrorists list.

Q: So, it is a wrong report that North Korea -- ?

Mr. Taniguchi: We are aware that North Korea is making that claim but what I am saying is that we have heard nothing from the US side to confirm it.

Q: How does Japan feel about this situation?

Mr. Taniguchi: Firstly, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, our ambassador is going to attend a Japan-North Korea bilateral meeting in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. We are expecting a positive outcome will emerge after the bilateral and we are watching closely what North Korea is going to say on many issues of our concern ranging from the abduction issue to the nuclear issue and so on.

Q: Is Japan going to raise this issue of the terrorist state de-listing?

Mr. Taniguchi: The first priority, of course, is that North Korea must come out with detailed and concrete information about the abductees. The rest of the decisions from the Japanese Government's side are going to be made in accordance with what the North Korean Government is actually going to say to us.

X. Question concerning Japan's intentions regarding investment and APEC

Q: Can I ask about the APEC Meeting? According to the Asahi Shimbun, Japan proposed the acceleration of investment into the Asia-Pacific region in a senior official meeting of APEC. Is that true and what is the intention of the Japanese Government?

Mr. Taniguchi: It is pretty much in line with the ongoing tasks that not only Japan but collectively all the member nations are supposed to tackle, because when you talk of a possibility to create the Asia-Pacific-wide free trade area, there has got to be further improvement of the mechanisms that would allow investment to and fro among the member nations. In order for the investment to be further enhanced, once again, there has to be an enhanced flow of human beings -- business people -- among member nations, so those are actually the points that the senior officials' meetings have been looking at over the last year. There is a strong likelihood that Japan is going to raise issues related to how to enhance investment.

XI. Questions concerning North Korea and the Six-Party Talks

Q: Today there was information that the Australian Foreign Minister invited the Foreign Ministers of Japan, Russia, the US, the Republic of Korea, and China to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue at an informal dinner in Sydney. Will Japan accept this offer?

Mr. Taniguchi: I cannot answer that question because I have not been briefed by the team that we have dispatched to Australia and I will have to come back to you later with the updated information on that.

Q: If such a meeting were held, would that be the first foreign-minister-level meeting of the five nations that are participating in the Six-Party Talks?

Mr. Taniguchi: Obviously I have to be very much extremely cautious in answering hypothetical questions but, that said, if that is going to be held by the initiative of the Australian Government, certainly that is going to be a very new initiative.

Q: When do you think the next round of Six-Party Talks can be held?

Mr. Taniguchi: I do not know.

Q: What about the possibility of sending humanitarian aid to North Korea by the Japanese Government. Do you think this issue will be resolved?

Mr. Taniguchi: The answer to your question is that we are thinking about that; we are considering the possibility.

First, we have to look into what the situation actually is on the ground in North Korea. We have been aware of the reports that the damage done by the flood in North Korea is severe. How severe is actually one of the questions we have to think really hard about. In accordance with the situation on the ground, the Japanese Government is going to consider what is to be done.

Q: Will the decision be somehow linked to the results of the working group meeting?

Mr. Taniguchi: Timing-wise, by the end of the day after tomorrow we will have become aware of what the North Korean Government has said to us on the Japanese side, and if the results end up being something very much discouraging, then the Japanese Government is going to have to decide what they can do and should do according to the result, but I think it is too early for us to predict what will take shape after the bilateral. To make it simple, my answer is let's just wait two or three days more to see what the North Korean Government has to say to the Japanese side.

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