Press Conference by the Press Secretary 23 February, 1999

Visit of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation to Japan from 20 to 23 February
Summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Republic of India and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
View of the Government of Japan on the Summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Republic of India and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Visit of President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the Republic of Yemen to Japan from 14 to 17 March
View of the Government of Japan on the visit of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation to Japan

Visit of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation to Japan from 20 to 23 February
Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. I would like to start with a brief read-out of the visit by Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation. He left this morning, I believe. In the course of his stay he had his meeting, as well as dinner, with Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahiko Koumura on Sunday and he called on Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi yesterday. The main points of his meetings with Foreign Minister Koumura and Prime Minister Obuchi are as follows. Firstly, they discussed the political dialogue between our two Governments. This was especially in the context of the meeting between the two Foreign Ministers and they agreed on certain schedules. For example, First Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Maslyukov of the Russian Federation is to visit Japan from 14 to 17 March. With respect to the visit by Foreign Minister Koumura to the Russian Federation, we will continue to coordinate the schedule, but with a view to planning it some time after the visit by First Deputy Prime Minister Maslyukov. Secondly, with respect to the peace treaty negotiations, it was agreed that the next round of the meetings of the Committee on the National Border Demarcation, and the Committee on the Joint Economic Activities on the four Islands would take place on 1 and 2 April in Tokyo. This is as you know at the Vice-Ministerial level. Thirdly, with respect to the visit of President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation to Japan, Foreign Minister Ivanov stated in his meeting with Foreign Minister Koumura that President Yeltsin is indeed looking forward to his visit to Japan and the Russian side hoped that they would be able to give us some idea about the timing of the visit in the very near future. In the meeting between Prime Minister Obuchi and Foreign Minister Ivanov, Prime Minister Obuchi said that he, himself was indeed looking forward to welcoming President Yeltsin. So those are the schedules.

The main points of the meeting between the two Foreign Ministers were the negotiation of the peace treaty itself and then the question of fostering the climate which would be conducive to the negotiation of the peace treaty as well as some bilateral cooperation agenda and exchange of views on the international situation. On the international situation, they exchanged views for example on Kosovo, the Republic of Iraq and North Korea. With respect to the peace treaty negotiation, the two Foreign Ministers carried out intensive discussions on the basis of the proposals put forward by the two sides. As you know, the Japanese side presented its proposal in the course of the meeting in Kawana in April last year and the Russian side presented its proposal in the course of the meeting between President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Obuchi in Moscow in November last year. So they engaged in intensive discussions on the basis of these two proposals and they reaffirmed that the two Governments would continue intensive work in line with the series of agreements and declarations, the Moscow Declaration and the Tokyo Declaration, that have been reached between the two sides in Krasnoyarsk, Kawana and Moscow.

Foreign Minister Koumura explained Japan's approach to this by saying that the resolution of the territorial question and the fostering of the environment conducive to the resolution of territorial question are the two wheels of the same cart. Foreign Minister Koumura on his part said that the Japanese side worked very hard to foster the environment conducive towards the resolution of this problem and he expressed the hope that the Russian side would work hard on the other wheel, that is the resolution of the territorial question. The two Foreign Ministers did agree that both sides would try to tackle this with utmost sincerity.

In his meeting with Foreign Minister Ivanov, Prime Minister Obuchi noted the substantive progress that has been achieved in the bilateral relations between Japan and Russia since Krasnoyarsk. Our relationship has been substantially expanding. Prime Minister Obuchi further said that if we can conclude the peace treaty it will be possible for us to open further new dimensions in our relationship, thereby to expand our relationship in all its full ranges. Prime Minister Obuchi also recalled the fact that in his meeting with President Yeltsin in Moscow last November, President Yeltsin instructed the negotiators on both sides to accelerate the work towards the conclusion of the peace treaty and Prime Minister Obuchi expressed to Foreign Minister Ivanov his own very strong wish to continue to work together with President Yeltsin to conclude the peace treaty by the year 2000. Prime Minister Obuchi also referred to the discussions that are now going on between the two Governments concerning the free visits by the former Japanese inhabitants of the four Islands. He noted that these former inhabitants are getting very old and they have this very strong wish to revisit their old homes. He expressed the wish that this long-standing wish on the part of these former inhabitants be granted. The two sides are to continue to work towards the earliest possible realization of these visits. We do realize that the peace treaty negotiation is not an easy negotiation but it is our intention to continue to engage in this sort of constant high-level dialogue with the Russian side with a view to making the utmost effort towards the conclusion of the peace treaty by the year 2000 through the resolution of the question of the four Islands based on the Tokyo Declaration and the Moscow Declaration.

I might also mention that in the meeting between the two Foreign Ministers, they discussed some bilateral cooperation agenda. Let me give you the headings. Notes verbales where exchanged on the construction of a new Chancellery building for the Japanese Embassy in Moscow. This had been pending for sometime. They exchanged these notes verbale laying down the basic terms for the building of this new Chancellery and we are hoping that the related procedures will go forward smoothly so that we can start the construction within fiscal year 2000 with a view to completing the construction at the latest by fiscal year 2004, that is the Japanese fiscal year. The second item discussed was the question of our cooperation to be extended to the Russian inhabitants of the four Islands. One of the items there is the installation of a diesel power plant, I think it may have been a journalist present who asked me earlier about this, and so it is on the table now. You may recall that last year in April in Kawana, the Japanese side expressed its intention to provide diesel power plants to the inhabitants of the four Islands who had been suffering from the question of power shortage. In November last year, we provided small diesel generators as well as fuel amounting to about 17 million yen to be used at hospitals and schools. Now this time we are planning to install diesel power plants, one in Anama, Shikotan, which had a fire in one of the power generation plants there in October last year, and also in Shana in Etorofu. We also expressed our intention to build a building in Furukappu in Kunashiri which can serve as a shelter for the inhabitants if there are some sort of natural disasters but which can also serve as a sort of community meeting place as well as a sort of accommodation facility for those Japanese visitors who will be visiting in the context of what we call the four Islands exchange. We will be working with the Russian Government and the authorities on the Islands with a view to the early realization of these plans. The third item is the establishment of the Japan-Russia Youth Exchange Center, which might be called the Obuchi-Yeltsin Center. The idea was something that was agreed upon between the two leaders in the course of the meeting in Moscow last November. The two sides came to a substantive agreement on an agreement that we will be entering into concerning the establishment of a Japan-Russia youth exchange committee where the center would be run on the basis of the fund to be contributed by the Japanese side of 1.92 billion yen. The idea is to make possible youth exchange involving about 1,000 people, including the invitation programs for Russian youths to come to Japan to learn about Japanese politics, economics, culture, Japan-Russia relations and so forth, to travel around Japan for that purpose to engage in discussions with Japanese youths and to stay at Japanese homes and so forth. There is also a program to invite the Russian leaders of the coming generations in the academic, political, government and other circles. The third part of the program is the fellowship program for young academics and researchers. The third item will be both ways, both Japanese researchers and Russian researchers visiting each other. The fourth item also relates to the four Islands. As you know, we have been extending emergency humanitarian assistance to the Russian inhabitants of the four Islands under a special framework established in the wake of the earthquake in 1994 which affected the four Islands as well as Hokkaido. In September last year, we agreed through an exchange of notes verbales to expand this framework, not just to emergency cooperation related to earthquakes but also more general emergency humanitarian assistance. It is under this framework that we accepted towards the latter part of last year, some patients who needed special medical care. You might recall that these people were brought to Hokkaido to receive medical treatment. So the idea is that when there are cases of very severe injury or very serious disease affecting the inhabitants of the four Islands, to make it possible for us to receive these inhabitants in places like Hokkaido as quickly as possible to provide necessary medical treatment. So that is the read-out of the visit of Foreign Minister Ivanov.
Related Information (Japan-Russia Relations)
Summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Republic of India and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: My next point is on the Summit meeting between the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on the occasion of the inaugural run of the New Delhi-Lahore bus service. We do value the fact that the two leaders met in a very friendly atmosphere at a very suitable occasion, that is the inaugural run of this bus service and that in the Lahore Declaration that the two leaders issued, India and Pakistan expressed their shared intention to work towards the resolution of all the issues, including the question of Jammu-Kashmir and to strengthen the process of composite and integrated dialogue between the two Governments. We do feel that this would be conducive to the relaxation of tension between the two Governments and we do hope that both India and Pakistan will further deepen their dialogue with a view to translating into reality the measures that they are contemplating in the Lahore Declaration and the related documents. I understand there were two other documents, one was a Joint Statement between the two sides and the other was a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two Foreign Secretaries and we also note, especially in the Memorandum of Understanding, there is also considerable reference to confidence-building measures between the two Governments as it relates to nuclear weapons, missiles and so forth. We will monitor the progress in this regard with interest and one of the contexts in which we will be monitoring this with interest is that we have been engaged in this dialogue with both India and Pakistan and also with the international community, concerning the problems created in the wake of the nuclear testing by India and Pakistan. We do attach importance to progress being made by these two countries on these nuclear questions and the question of missiles, for example the signing and ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and instituting of the legal arrangements for the rigorous implementation of export control regimes on nuclear- and missile-related material and technology, also what we call the cut-off, the unilateral moratorium on the production of nuclear fissile materials as well as restraint on the development and deployment of missiles.
Related Information (Response of the Government of Japan to the Nuclear Tests Conducted by India and Pakistan)
View of the Government of Japan on the Summit meeting between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee of the Republic of India and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Q: Do you think the India-Pakistan summit may influence Japan's decision on whether or not to resume aid to the two countries and does Japan think the summit furthers the cause of peace?

Mr. Numata: To take your second point first which does relate to the first point in a way. To the extent that this whole question of nuclear testing and nuclear development by India and Pakistan has its root cause in the tension between the two countries on a host of issues including the question of Kashmir, the relaxation of tension between the two Governments could be an important factor in the sense of possibly alleviating the nuclear race as it were, between the two countries. So in that sense we do hope that this bilateral Summit would prove to be an important step forward in their efforts toward the relaxation of tension. Having said that, with respect to the question of the nuclear testing and the question of the measures that we have taken in the wake of the nuclear testing by India and Pakistan, there are some specific benchmarks to which we attach importance. I referred to some of them earlier, including the signing and ratification of the CTBT. I also referred to such other factors as export control regimes on nuclear- and missile-related material and technology and so forth. So it is in that context that we will be monitoring the developments with interest.
Related Information (Response of the Government of Japan to the Nuclear Tests Conducted by India and Pakistan)
Visit of President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the Republic of Yemen to Japan from 14 to 17 March
Q: Regarding the upcoming visit of President Saleh of Yemen. Is there any fixed itinerary for his visit?

Mr. Numata: The basic itinerary is being worked out, but let me say that President Saleh -- would it be pronounced "Saleh"?

Q: Saleh.

Mr. Numata: Saleh. Thank you. I am not quite sure if I am duplicating the pronunciation quite correctly, but President Ali Abdullah Saleh of the Republic of Yemen will be visiting Japan from Sunday, 14 March to Wednesday, 17 March and he will be on an official working visit to Japan. We do know that His Majesty the Emperor of Japan will be meeting with President Saleh and that His Majesty the Emperor will be hosting a Court lunch in the Imperial Palace. The other parts of his itinerary are being worked out. I may also refer to some of the background against which this visit is taking place. We attach importance to our relationship with the Republic of Yemen in the sense that Yemen, since its promulgation of its constitution in 1994, has been working towards democratization and economic structural reform. It is the only nation with a republican system of government on that peninsula, and we also note that they are having a direct election of the president later this year. This is the first visit by the President of Yemen to Japan, although I would like to add that Prime Minister Obuchi did meet President Saleh briefly in Amman, Jordan when he attended the state funeral of the late King Hussein bin Talal of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. We do feel this is an important opportunity for our two countries to establish a relationship of mutual trust. We also feel that this will be an important opportunity for us to demonstrate our support to Yemen's determination to carry out its economic reform in consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. I will say that probably the itinerary will be arranged accordingly.

Q: I would like to know, as you have spoken about economic and political reform, if there will be discussion concerning Japanese aide to the Yemen Government to help it implement economic reform?

Mr. Numata: It is possible. I would also note that Yemen is in considerable economic difficulty as you know and with its per capita GNP of US$ 306, it is the only least-developed country (LLDC) in the Gulf and it is faced with this challenge of economic structural reform with the support of the World Bank and IMF. Japan has been extending economic assistance to Yemen. We have been active in that regard. However, our assistance has been centered on grant assistance because since September 1998, Yemen has been subject to sort of debt reduction measures and that makes it difficult for us to provide new yen loans but we have been providing grant assistance to Yemen. We do feel that it is desirable for us to continue to support Yemen for the reasons that I have mentioned. So in some way or other, that could very well come up in the course of the discussion. However, it is a bit early in the day to say precisely what.
Related Information (Japan-Yemen Relations)
View of the Government of Japan on the visit of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation to Japan
Q: What is your general assessment of the meetings between Foreign Minister Ivanov and the Japanese leaders?

Mr. Numata: As I said earlier, there is the shared desire on both sides to continue to work intensively towards the conclusion of the peace treaty and I may also come back to the two-wheel analogy by Foreign Minister Koumura which is that we need to work on these two fronts intensively at the same time and we have been working very hard on both wheels but especially with respect to the fostering of the environment for the conclusion of the peace treaty. There are two proposals on the table which will continue to be discussed and in the course of the meeting between the two Foreign Ministers this time, Foreign Minister Koumura said to Foreign Minister Ivanov that we are giving our response to the Russian proposal at the level of the leaders, so the negotiations and the discussions are to continue. As I said, both sides share the desire to continue to work on this intensively and to do so with utmost sincerity. It is still a continuing process. I may add just one point. I said that there are two proposals on the same table. Naturally from our point of view, we feel that our proposal provides the best solution to this problem. You might not be surprised to hear that.

Q: Are Japan and Russia talking on the same wave length in the negotiations on the Northern Territories issue? It seems the two sides are missing the points of each other.

Mr. Numata: I do not think it is quite true to say that the two sides are sort of out of sync or missing each other or whatever. We are in sync in the sense of recognizing the importance of continuing our intensive work. Both sides have their respective positions as reflected in the two proposals, but these two proposals are on the table. We will continue to discuss them intensively with a view to reaching some possible accomodation. The important thing is that the work is still continuing and both sides share the desire to continue the work with utmost intensity.
Related Information (Japan-Russia Relations)

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