Press Conference, 12 December 2006

Events Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Japan's Admission to the United Nations
2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year
Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Republic of the Philippines and the Arab Republic of Egypt
Questions concerning the Rescheduling of the East Asia Summit
Questions concerning the Upcoming Visit to Japan of the Prime Minister of the Republic of India
Questions concerning the Six-Party Talks

I. Events Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Japan's Admission to the United Nations

Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi: Good afternoon and thanks for joining me.

Some of the important announcements I should otherwise have made are already available through the Ministry's website, including one on the Commemorative Ceremony of the 50th Anniversary of Japan's Admission to the United Nations (UN), scheduled to be held on 18 December in the presence of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

The next day, on 19 December, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Association of Japan will hold a symposium entitled "The Civilian Agenda: Toward Further UN Reform" at the Ministry's conference room. You are encouraged to come and see ambassadors from the People's Republic of China, Republic of Korea (ROK), and others addressing this pressing issue.

Related Information (Press Release)

II. 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year

Mr. Taniguchi: I have three more items that I would like to call your attention to. One is about the 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year.

The Executive Committee of the Exchange Year was recently established, and its first meeting will be held on 21 December at the Keidanren Kaikan. On that day, Mr. Fujio Mitarai, Chairman and CEO of Canon and also Chairman of the Nippon Keidanren, will officially assume the chairmanship after approval by the Action Committee.

The year 2007 will see the 35th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. Taking this occasion, the Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year is intended to enhance mutual understanding through various exchanges.

At the Japan-China summit talks that were held in October of this year when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited China, the leaders agreed to actively develop national exchanges through holding the 2007 Japan-China Culture and Sports Exchange Year.

This exchange year aims to introduce an image of a new Japan and the Japanese to Chinese people of the new generation. To achieve this goal, the Government of Japan, the private sector, and local governments will in concert put emphasis on youth exchange, grassroots exchange, cultural exchange, sports exchange, economic exchange, and social action programs.

Related Information (Press Release)

III. Official Development Assistance (ODA) to the Republic of the Philippines and the Arab Republic of Egypt

Mr. Taniguchi: Another item is that the Japanese Government has decided to extend a yen loan amounting to a maximum of 8.529 billion yen to the Government of the Republic of the Philippines for the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project. The hope is that the project will help make the Greater Manila area more flood-proof.

The last one is that the Government of Japan has decided to extend a grant aid of up to 432 million yen to the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt for the Project of Rehabilitating Floating Pump Stations in Upper Egypt.

IV. Questions concerning the Rescheduling of the East Asia Summit

Q: The ASEAN Summit Meeting and the East Asia Summit (EAS) which were scheduled for later this week have been postponed. I was wondering, since Prime Minister Abe seems unlikely to attend the summits because of this current schedule, what is the that the Foreign Minister Taro Aso would attend on behalf of Prime Minister Abe?

Mr. Taniguchi: I cannot say anything at the moment. It is really hard for me to predict what will likely happen in terms of the scheduling for both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. I am sorry.

Q: Do we have firm dates set for the postponed EAS? Will it be January?

Mr. Taniguchi: The Philippine Government is sounding out possible dates to the member nations, but concretely nothing conclusive has been decided.

Q: To follow up on the EAS, the Philippine Government is proposing 10-13 January. That would leave little time for the Japanese Government to decide. At the latest when should the Japanese Government decide? By the end of this month?

Mr. Taniguchi: You may know that when it comes to scheduling the visits of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, and the members of the Cabinet in general, the Cabinet has got to give approval to those scheduled visits. I am not sure at the moment when the Japanese Cabinet is going to have its extraordinary meeting to give endorsement and approval to the sending of the Prime Minister, so I cannot say at all at the moment when you will be hearing about that.

Q: Related to that, has there ever been a summit cancelled or postponed in the past because of a typhoon or hurricane?

Mr. Taniguchi: Not that I know of.

Related Information (East Asia Summit)

V. Questions concerning the Upcoming Visit to Japan of the Prime Minister of the Republic of India

Q: I am interested in the Japan-India summit starting tomorrow. It seems to me that the Japanese Government and also Japanese companies are trying to step up efforts to come to closer terms with India. What are the reasons behind this?

Mr. Taniguchi: There are many, many reasons. One obvious reason is that India is one of the largest nations in the world and one of the fastest-growing nations in the world, so it would be sensible for Japanese companies to enhance their standing in India, and there is ample room to be cultivated and developed, both in terms of the political relationship and the economic relationship.

You may recall that India played an instrumental role in widening the scope of institutions such as the EAS or East Asia Summit, with India, the Republic of Singapore, and Japan working closely together, later to include the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand. India has already been a very good partner for Japan in deepening regional ties and cementing institutions such as EAS. And yet nonetheless, if you look at the connection between India and Japan, the relationship, I could say, has been very small in scale in comparison to the China-Japan relationship, for instance.

As an example, between China and Japan per week you have got as many as 676 direct flight connections going back and forth between many airports in China and Japan. You have only 11 direct connections flying between India and Japan per week. We are very much hoping to increase, for instance, the number of flights connecting the two nations, and I cannot recall the exact number at the moment, but the number of Indian students currently studying in Japan is also far smaller than the number of Chinese students. There is ample room for Japan to strengthen its relationships with India.

I may also add that in the latest speech that Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso gave, which was titled "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity," India was mentioned very clearly as one of the democracies that could be a linchpin in the spreading of freedom and prosperity along the arc that Foreign Minister Aso mentioned. In many respects, India and Japan can work together, and we are very much hoping that the upcoming summit meeting will be very fruitful.

Q: Do you have any agreements already to be signed? In which areas do you expect to make progress this time?

Mr. Taniguchi: Already the joint study group involving economic experts from both nations has published a report that official negotiations for a possible economic partnership agreement (EPA) between India and Japan should be kicked off as soon as possible. I should say that one of the items to be discussed by the two Prime Ministers would be that: to officially launch the negotiations for the EPA.

Q: Are there any plans to touch on any geopolitical issues?

Mr. Taniguchi: That would be a matter of definition. It is hard for me to say what is a geopolitical issue.

Q: For example, defense issues.

Mr. Taniguchi: Defense issues? Equally, there should be room for both Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel and Indian military personnel to enhance their relationship, for instance by increasing the number of exchanges between the two military and defense organizations. But other than that, I should be restrained in revealing everything, because the Prime Ministers from both nations are supposed to make all the revelations.

Q: What is the scope of the EPA? I know of course this is not a free trade agreement (FTA), but an economic partnership. Does this also mean to encourage foreign direct investment in India and maybe from India in Japan? What is the scope of this kind of agreement?

Mr. Taniguchi: I know that sometimes it is a little bit confusing to distinguish an EPA from an FTA, but an EPA in general is far wider in scope, and it deals with not only border-related issues, but also issues that were supposed to be strictly domestic concerns, like intellectual property rights, or the flow not just of goods, but also of people. As is the case with other EPAs that Japan has with other nations, the EPA between India and Japan will also deal with investment issues and intellectual property rights in addition to ordinary liberalization of goods and services. It is really hard to say everything about what an EPA will cover, because the scope is very wide.

Q: Regarding India, I am not too familiar with the foreign relations of Japan and India, actually, but is this a historic summit in some way? How would you describe it?

Mr. Taniguchi: You know that during the Cold War, India was known to be very independent as a non-allied nation, and some regarded India as closer to Soviet Russia than Pakistan was, for instance. Since the end of the Cold War, the bilateral relationship between India and Japan has been warming up, and the bilateral ties between India and Japan have been strengthened by the visits of Japanese Prime Ministers like Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Also, for instance, Minister for Foreign Affairs Aso made a visit to India, and there have been frequent bilateral visits from both sides on a pretty high level.

In that sense, this upcoming visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Japan may not be as historical as the previous ones, but nonetheless what I could add to that would be that it would be very noteworthy in that India and Japan will probably agree on the launching of an EPA and also in that they will officially make it known that India and Japan will have a global partnership with a strategic focus. There are many respects that should be very noteworthy in further strengthening the bilateral relationship. I am answering your question in a roundabout fashion, but that would be as much as I can say at the moment.

Q: Excuse me, but what does this mean, a global partnership?

Mr. Taniguchi: I should stop here, because I am already giving a piece of beef to you. I should ask the Prime Ministers to address this.

Q: So Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi never visited India while he was in office?

Mr. Taniguchi: Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a visit to India in April 2005, last year, and his predecessor Prime Minister Mori made a visit to India in August 2000.

Related Information (Press Release)

VI. Questions concerning the Six-Party Talks

Q: In the Six-Party Talks, there seems to be no common foundation for negotiation. Tokyo and Washington are saying that North Korea must come to the table with a commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons, and North Korea is asserting that it is already a nuclear power. There seems to be no common foundation on which to build the negotiations from here on in. How can we push forward? What are the prospects that the Japanese Government is seeing?

Mr. Taniguchi: As far as we have heard from the Chinese Government, it seems that the Government of China is pretty confident that there will be progress in comparison to past precedents. We are counting on that assumption, and as a basic principle, I should reiterate that North Korea's nuclear dismantlement has got to be verifiable, and I should call your attention to what Minister for Foreign Affairs Aso said this morning to members of the Japanese press corps; he said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) should be fully involved in the verification process. But at the moment, that is as much as I can say. What is clear at the moment is that on 18 December there is likely to be a meeting of the Six-Party Talks.

Q: And this is scheduled for three to five days?

Mr. Taniguchi: I do not know; it is not clear yet.

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