Press Conference by the Press Secretary 13 April, 1999

1. Response of the Government of Japan to the missile testing by the Republic of India on 11 April
2. Visit to Japan by President Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt
3. Discussion between Japan and the Republic of India, and Japan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan about security in South Asia
4. Discussion between Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and President Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt about security in East Asia
5. Official visit to the United States of America by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi
6. Response of the foreign press to the election of Governor-elect Shintaro Ishihara of Tokyo
7. Visit to the Russian Federation by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto

1. Response of the Government of Japan to the missile testing by the Republic of India on 11 April

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. I have an announcement on the missile testing by the Republic of India. We do find it truly regrettable that India conducted missile testing on 11 April despite the repeated requests made by Japan not to do it. The missile testing could be detrimental to peace and stability of the region. We earnestly hope that this missile testing would neither heighten the tension between India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan nor intensify the nuclear arms and missile development race in the region. We renew our strong hope that both India and Pakistan would refrain from further missile testing. We did make this position known to India, that is yesterday, on 12 April. Deputy Director-General Hiroyasu Ando of the Asian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called in chargé d'affaires Siddharth Singh of the Republic of India in Tokyo to explain this position to the Indian Government and strongly urged restraint on the part of India. Also yesterday, Director-General Koreshige Anami of the Asian Affairs Bureau called in Ambassador Touqir Hussain of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Tokyo to urge them strongly not to conduct missile testing in competition with the testing by India. We in fact had been in touch with the Indian Government prior to the actual testing to urge restraint. I might also mention that in this particular case, on 9 April the Indian Government informed us in advance that they were planning this missile testing. That is my announcement on the missile testing.

   Related Information (Japan-India Relations)
   
2. Visit to Japan by President Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Secondly, a quick read-out from the visit by President Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Japan. He met a number of people in the course of his stay in Japan. He met Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi yesterday and the day before yesterday, Foreign Minister Amr Mahmoud Moussa, who is traveling with President Mubarak, met Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahiko Koumura. As a result of the meeting between President Mubarak and Prime Minister Obuchi, our two governments issued a Japan-Egypt Joint Statement and also a document entitled "Japan-Egypt Partnership Program." Let me go through the salient points. In the meetings between Foreign Minister Koumura and Foreign Minister Moussa, and also between President Mubarak and Prime Minister Obuchi, the question of the Middle Eastern peace process was taken up extensively. We explained to the Egyptian side the message that we conveyed to Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the course of Chairman Arafat's stay in Tokyo. One of the points there is that we did make clear to Chairman Arafat our view that it would not be desirable for the Palestinian Authority to make the declaration of independence at the time of 4 May 1999. We requested Chairman Arafat not to do so. One other important point is that we explained to the Egyptian side the fact that we had made clear to Chairman Arafat that Japan had been continuously supporting the Palestinian people's right of self-determination, including the right to establish an independent state. We also made clear our strong hope that an independent Palestinian state would be established through peaceful means in the near future in accordance with the basic principles contained in the series of Middle Eastern peace agreements starting from Oslo. I might also mention in that context that in the Japan-Egypt Joint Statement with President Mubarak, we reaffirmed our support for the right of the Palestinian people to national self-determination, including the right to establish an independent state. The two leaders also urged the parties concerned to refrain from any unilateral action that might prejudice the outcome of the final status talks, including the issues of Jerusalem and expansion of settlements in the occupied territories.

   President Mubarak, for his part, expressed his appreciation for the active contribution made by Japan to the Middle Eastern peace process, including Japan's support to the Palestinians, Japan's dispatch of our Self-Defense Forces unit to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the Four Point Proposal made by Foreign Minister Koumura regarding South Lebanon, and Japan's role as a gavel holder of the Working Group on Environment in the multilateral consultations. With respect to the bilateral cooperation between Japan and Egypt, in fact this document issued by President Mubarak and Prime Minister Obuchi speaks for itself in the sense that it characterizes the 21st century as the century of peace and prosperity. In that context, there are a number of items addressed which lay down the directions for the cooperation between Japan and Egypt in the coming century, including the continuation of the political dialogue between our two countries. In fact there are five priority areas listed with respect to our cooperation in the 21st century, that is peace and cooperation, economy, trade and investment, environment, cultural exchange, and lastly, education, youth and academic exchange. With respect to the political dialogue, it was agreed to establish the Japan-Egypt Partnership Forum to discuss regional and international issues as well as other issues and we anticipate this Forum to take place in the form of a meeting between our two Foreign Ministers at a time to be decided. With respect to the economic relationship between our two countries, the two leaders have agreed to revitalize the Businessman's Forums for Japan-Egypt Cooperation and this revitalized Forum is now called the Japan-Egypt Business Cooperation Committee. There is this committee on the Japanese side as well as a corresponding committee on the Egyptian side. It will be addressing a number of issues, including the question of trade promotion through the work of the Japan External Trade Relations Organization (JETRO), tourism promotion, support to small and medium enterprises, as well as improvement of the investment climate. It is also envisaged that the two countries will step up their cooperation in the area of environment, including the area of clean energy development such as power generation through the use of wind farms, I think they call it, as well as solar energy. With respect to economic cooperation or Japan's aid to Egypt, President Mubarak expressed the hope that Japan would resume its yen loans to Egypt and Prime Minister Obuchi responded by saying that we would like to consider actively the possibilities of extending yen loans to Egypt. Those are the main points of President Mubarak's visit to Japan. We feel that this visit has indeed been a very successful visit. The two sides are very satisfied with it in the sense that we had the opportunity to discuss the important question of the Middle Eastern peace process and from our point of view, with the leader who plays a central role in that peace process, and also in the sense that in the form of the Japan-Egypt Partnership Program, we have been able to identify the priority areas for Japan-Egypt cooperation as we go into the next century.

   Related Information (Japan-Egypt Relations)
   
3. Discussion between Japan and the Republic of India, and Japan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan about security in South Asia

   Q: Does Japan acknowledge that India has a very serious security problem with China?

   Mr. Numata: India may have a serious security problem with the People's Republic of China, but we do rely on India's public statements, and I am not quite sure whether the China angle has been explicitly mentioned by the Indian authorities in connection with this missile launch. Our concern really is that this missile testing by India might trigger reactions from certain other countries, for example, its own neighbor, and if that sort of process is triggered, it can be really detrimental to peace and stability of the South Asia region and perhaps to the rest of the world. That is why we have repeatedly expressed our hope that India and Pakistan would neither heighten the tension between them nor intensify the nuclear arms and missile development race in the region.

   Q: India does not agree that its missile testing will intensify an arms race, but Japan seems to agree with Pakistan and China that it will.

   Mr. Numata: Certainly your argument would not apply with respect to Pakistan because we are making precisely the same point to Pakistan. Perhaps it would help if I explained to you the response by chargé d'affaires Singh of India to Deputy Director-General Ando when we made the démarche yesterday. Chargé d'affaires Singh said that he would convey the message from Japan to this home government. He referred to the statement by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Republic of India in the Indian Parliament in December last year in which he said that India continues its missile development in consideration of its own security environment. Prime Minister Vajpayee also said on that occasion that the missile testings were being conducted in accordance with international practice. He further said that this missile testing was conducted as a part of an open, transparent and clear program and that this testing would not destabilize the situation in the region. To which our answer is the one that I have just given you. When Director-General Anami called in Ambassador Hussain of Pakistan, also yesterday, we said to Pakistan that if Pakistan should choose to conduct its missile testing, that could be detrimental to the peace and stability of the region and therefore we strongly hope that Pakistan would exercise restraint so as not to intensify the nuclear arms and development race. My point is that as far as I know, when chargé d'affaires Singh of India responded to our démarche, he did not mention any particular country by name.

   Q: Will India's missile testing bring about new Japanese sanctions?

   Mr. Numata: Firstly, the measures that we have been taking in the wake of the nuclear testing by India and Pakistan are measures; we do not necessarily call them sanctions. Having said that, it is true that these measures are in place, and we do not contemplate taking any new measures in the wake of this missile testing. Having said that, I would also add that within the context of the Group of Eight (G8) Plus, you remember the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G8 countries with a few other countries in London last year, we have been urging India and Pakistan to take certain steps to dispel the concerns on the part of the international community with respect to the question of the nuclear testing. There have been certain benchmarks laid down to measure the progress on the part of India and Pakistan in that regard, and these benchmarks include, for example, their accession to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a rigorous export control regime on nuclear- and missile-related materials and technologies, thirdly, a moratorium on the production of nuclear fissile materials prior to the coming into effect of the Cut-Off Treaty and lastly, restraint from weaponization or deployment of nuclear weapons and refraining from the testing or deployment of missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. This whole question of missile development and missile testing capable of carrying nuclear weapons is an important factor to be taken into account.

   Q: Japan is still placing measures against India, yet India made this missile test. So do you think these measures should be increased or relaxed since they are not changing the missile program in India?

   Mr. Numata: I do not know whether you are advising us to take a defeatist view of our own measures. I do not somehow think that that is the case. As I said, as we work towards the goal of dissuading India and Pakistan from the path of nuclear testing and the development of nuclear weapons and missiles, there are certain benchmarks that we will be looking at. I do not think I can say at this point precisely at what sort of pace and under what kind of scenario our measures may be relaxed. We will have to take a number of factors into consideration, including the four benchmarks that I have mentioned. What I can tell you now is what I said earlier which is that we do not contemplate taking additional measures vis-à-vis India at this particular point in time.

   Related Information (Response of the Government of Japan to the Nuclear Tests Conducted by India and Pakistan)
   
4. Discussion between Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and President Hosni Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt about security in East Asia

   Q: Did Egypt and Japan discuss the issue of North Korea and what are the details?

   Mr. Numata: Only in passing, as I understand it. It came up in the course of the dinner given by Prime Minister Obuchi. In the course of the dinner, Prime Minister Obuchi referred in general to the question of peace and stability in East Asia. Of course we do attach a great deal of importance to peace and stability in East Asia. At the same time, we consider it very important for Japan to support the Middle Eastern peace process. Prime Minister Obuchi further said that he would appreciate it if President Mubarak took an interest, not just in the Middle Eastern peace process, but also in the peace and stability in East Asia. In that context, Prime Minister Obuchi asked President Mubarak about his visit to the Republic of Korea. President Mubarak talked about his experience in the Republic of Korea saying that the question of North Korea did come up in his conversation with the leaders of the Republic of Korea. I do not think I should be commenting on the details of that exchange because those are exchanges taking place between leaders of third countries, but one of the points President Mubarak apparently said was that although he had met former leader Kim-Il Sung a number of times, he has not met the present leader of North Korea yet. I think that was about the extent of the exchange on North Korea.

   Related Information (Japan-Egypt Relations)
   
5. Official visit to the United States of America by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi

   Q: Can you give us the itinerary of Prime Minister Obuchi's trip to the US as of now?

   Mr. Numata: What we know at this point is that he will be meeting President William Jefferson Clinton of the United States of America in Washington on 3 May. Incidentally, this is an official visit by a Japanese prime minister to the United States, and although there have been a number of Japanese prime ministers visiting the United States in recent years, this is the first official visit by a Japanese prime minister to the United State in 12 years. There will be this Summit meeting with President Clinton on 3 May in Washington as well as other official functions that go with an official visit. Beyond that, we are still in the process of working out his itinerary, including the possibility of Prime Minister Obuchi visiting certain cities in the United States, but it is still in the planning stage.

   Q: Does that mean Washington?

   Mr. Numata: When I say "including the possibility of his visiting certain cities in the United States," in the sense that the United States is a pretty large country. Perhaps he may find it more convenient to make one or two stops on the way. I have been saying "cities" in the plural.

   Related Information (Japan-The United States Relations)
   
6. Response of the foreign press to the election of Governor-elect Shintaro Ishihara of Tokyo

   Q: Any comment on the election of Mr. Ishihara?

   Mr. Numata: Mr. Shintaro Ishihara has been elected as Governor of Tokyo, and I am a spokesman for the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs which is part of the central government. As such, I do not think I will have any comment other than to say that represents the will of the residents of Tokyo.

   Q: How about the reactions of the foreign press to his election?

   Mr. Numata: We have seen some of the reactions from the foreign press. I do not know whether it would be appropriate for me to comment on these reactions in the foreign media which apparently have been very strong about the comments made by Mr. Ishihara as a candidate for the gubernatorial election. As such, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment on behalf of the Japanese Government. However, if you look at some of the comments in the foreign media, there seem to be some focuses, for example, on the question of the Japan-US security alliance. On that the position of the Japanese Government is very clear, which is that the Japan-US Security Treaty, which is at the core of the alliance relationship between Japan and the United States, has served the interests of Japan and of stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region for the past 40 years. It has served as an effective framework for preserving peace and stability in the region and the alliance relationship also represents the fact that Japan and the United States share such basic values as freedom and democracy and enjoy very close cooperative relations in political, economic, cultural and other areas. So we do feel that this security treaty does form the basis of this close partnership between Japan and the United States. It is certainly our, that is the government's intention, to continue to maintain and uphold it.

7. Visit to the Russian Federation by former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto

   Q: According to some press reports about Mr. Hashimoto's visit to Russia, they claim that Japan might make a compromise on the Northern Territories issue.

   Mr. Numata: I sometimes admire the fertile imagination of the members of the fourth estate and this may be one such case.

   Q: I think it was the Russian press that stated Mr. Hashimoto might make a compromise.

   Mr. Numata: The fertile imagination of the members of the fourth estate may exist not only in Japan but also in some other countries, including Russia. That is, in other words, I do not know of any basis which might support that speculation. Former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto is visiting the Russian Federation as a very close personal friend of President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation. We do hope that his visit will serve to foster a good climate for resolving some of the pending issues between our two countries, including the question of the conclusion of the peace treaty, but his visit is not directly linked to the negotiation on the peace treaty as such. Any other questions, perhaps on some other parts of the world?

   Related Information (Japan-Russia Relations)