Press Conference by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto
on the Occasion of His Visit to
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)

Singapore
13 January 1997

Transcript

I. Introduction to the press conference

Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: We would now like to begin this press conference with a brief statement by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.

II. Opening statement by the Prime Minister

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: I am most grateful for this opportunity. Among countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who are Japan's neighboring friends and close and important partners of many years, at this time, I have visited Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Republic of Indonesia, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Singapore. Despite the tense situation of the occupation of the Japanese Ambassador's Residence in Peru, I set out on this trip according to plan, in view of the importance of the relations between Japan and the ASEAN countries. While the decision was a difficult one for me, I am now truly glad that I made the trip. I believe this has been taken as such by the leaders of the countries that I visited, as well. I am convinced that through this trip, I have further cemented relations of personal trust with the leaders of this region, and have more than fully attained the objective of building a new cooperative relationship between Japan and ASEAN for the twenty-first century.

Also, on this occasion, I would like to say a word about the occupation of the Japanese Ambassador's Residence in the Republic of Peru, where many people are still being held hostage. The basic position of the Government of Japan is to respond with unwavering resolve, absolutely refusing to yield to terrorism. The Government of Japan has full confidence in the Government of Peru, and will continue to make unceasing efforts for a peaceful resolution of this situation in order to realize the early release of all the hostages. We attach top priority to the safety of human lives. I explained this basic position to the Heads of Government whom I met during this visit -- to the countries of ASEAN. In these discussions, all the leaders -- Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia, President Soeharto of the Republic of Indonesia, Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong of the Republic of Singapore -- expressed their fullest support of the Government of Peru, and to the basic position taken by the Government of Japan.

ASEAN, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, has been actively promoting diplomatic initiatives, such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), against the backdrop of its remarkable growth over the last decade. In addition, reflecting the disappearance of confrontations that divided Southeast Asia during the Cold War, and the steady progress in regional stabilization, ASEAN has been building a cooperative system that encompasses the entire Southeast Asian region. In my talks with the leaders of the countries that I visited, I appealed to the importance of adding to the breadth and depth of Japan's relations with ASEAN, which to date have centered on the economic realm. I proposed that we engage in close and frequent dialogue at the heads of government level, be it formal or informal, between Japan and ASEAN, while taking advantage of all available opportunities. All the leaders have given their consent to this basic thinking.

I also conveyed to them my view that Japan and ASEAN need to address hand-in-hand the various challenges that the international society faces, namely the environment, welfare, health, and drugs, among others. In doing so, Japan will share with ASEAN not only its successful experiences, but its failures and mistakes, including the causes of those failures, efforts employed to overcome them, and the end result so that the mistakes we committed will not be repeated. We shall maintain close communication in the days ahead with the ASEAN side in order to realize such cooperation.

On this trip, I have truly felt the diversity of culture and tradition in ASEAN. This diversity is ASEAN's strength. Japan wishes to extend its utmost cooperation to protect and promote ASEAN cultures. Also, in my meetings, I stressed that I am promoting six domestic reforms: administrative reform; economic structural reform; financial system reform; social security structural reform; fiscal structural reform; and, education reform in order to build an economic and social system for Japan that befits the twenty-first century. All the leaders have expressed their expectations for Japan's reforms. I am convinced that the promotion of these reforms in Japan, and respective structural reforms in ASEAN countries, will lead to ever closer economic ties between Japan and ASEAN.

It was also a pleasure to engage in extremely useful exchanges of views on regional situations, and diverse bilateral issues. On this trip, I have been able to feel the ASEAN countries fresh energy, and have renewed my awareness that Japan-ASEAN relations are entering a new age. Accordingly, Japan and the ASEAN countries need to step up their cooperation.

Before concluding, may I take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude for the warm hospitality that I have received in all the countries that I visited, and state that I shall do my utmost to further build on the achievements of this trip. Thank you very much.

Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: I would like to invite you to ask questions at this time.

Ⅲ. Hostage situation in the Republic of Peru

Q: Regarding the Peru hostage situation, I would like to ask you a question. The head-to-head negotiations with the Government of Peru and terrorists have not started. How do you view the present situation? As a Government, how do intend to respond to the situation in the future?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: The hostage situation still remains extremely tough and difficult, allowing for no pre-judgement. Yesterday, we saw moves toward resumptions of direct negotiations with the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). The MRTA demanded the release of incarcerated colleagues, and therefore direct negotiations were not resumed. A new three-item proposal was made by the Government of Peru to the MRTA for the resumption of negotiations, we understand. As the Government of Japan, we hope that direct negotiations will be resumed as early as possible, and progress will be made toward the resolution of the situation. The three items indicated by Education Minister Domingo Palermo are to nominate the members of the guarantee committee, with the agreement of both the Peruvian Government and the MRTA, and agree on the location of the meeting, and also to take up all the items discussed during previous contacts. Our position is never to yield to terrorism, and to maintain an unwavering position against them. With complete trust in the Peruvian Government, we very much hope that tenacious efforts will be made toward the earliest possible release of all the hostages through peaceful resolution. If there are any requests from the Peruvian Government, we would very much like to do anything that we can to help.

Ⅳ. Japan-People's Republic of China bilateral relations

Q: When will Japan resume its grant-in-aid to China? Does Japan, in any way, see China as an actual or potential threat to its national security?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: We believe developing in a stable manner the relations between Japan and the People's Republic of China, in other words, engaging China as a constructive partner in the world, is in the interest of not only Asia and the Pacific, but in terms of stability and prosperity -- the entire world. In that respect, since the summer of last year, we did see moments of awkwardness in the relations between Japan and China. But, at the time of the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Meetings, the leaders of Japan and China were able to meet in Manila. Since then, Japan-China relations have turned positive. In both Japan and China, we will make efforts for further development of our bilateral relations. There certainly are issues where our respective positions and arguments differ. That goes for any bilateral relations. Both of us are in a position that we should never allow such differences to undermine Japan-China relations. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and China. This is indeed a very memorable year. This year, through very close dialogue between our two countries, we would like to work toward further development of our bilateral ties. At the working level, we have already had developments with regard to yen loans. Not only that, in the area of economic cooperation and promotion of the World Trade Organization (WTO) accession of China, we would like to support the opening up and reform of China. We believe that the international society as a whole should make efforts to engage China as a constructive partner.

Ⅴ. Japan's economy

Q: Prime Minister, in view of the huge fall of the share price index of Japanese securities, how are you going to implement overall economic management of the Japanese economy?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: The closing of the market has, I understand, recovered to the Y18,000 level. I do not have detailed information yet. Of course, the stock prices are determined by numerous factors and determined freely in the marketplace, depending on supply and demand relationships. Therefore, it is very difficult to specify the specific factors that determine price developments. But, if you look at the Japanese economic situation, the fundamentals are not really bad at all. We should do our best to pass, as well as possible, a supplementary budget, and do our best in managing the economy properly by steadily implementing the budget of FY1996. As you mentioned, there are various views with regard to the current economic situation in Japan, and some argue that the hike in the consumption tax of five percent, and the termination of special tax-cut measures, will have various effects on the second quarter results. That is why I had hoped that there would be consideration given to the supplementary budget. Furthermore, private-sector economic strength is growing, and the economy continues to be on a recovery tone. With the private-sector demands, such as personal consumption and capital investment, we believe that the economy will gradually move in a better direction. In the meantime, we shall implement, very actively, structural reforms such as economic structural reform. I think this is very important. We shall try to make efforts for self-sustained economic recovery built on private demand, and with that, we would also like to continue to closely look into the real economy.

Ⅵ. Japan-Republic of Singapore bilateral discussions

Q: You had quite a long session of discussions with the Singapore ministers and delegation today. Can you brief us on what you discussed, and were there any concrete agreements reached?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: What should I take up first? Well, it is true that we had very constructive discussions in my tete-a-tete with Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, and also in the larger plenary session. We have come to agreement in various areas. One example is the establishment of the Foundation that Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong proposed at the ASEM meeting last March. I promised that Japan would give US$2 million dollars by the end of March of this year. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong asked if Japan could possibly give more, but we believe that this does provide a very substantial contribution. Also, we discussed about how to realize exchanges between our two administrations. Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong indicated a very positive response to this. But, the question is in which area to start, in terms of this administrative exchange? I suggested the possibility of starting with an exchange of diplomats. Prime Minister Goh said that that is fine, but why not exchange people involved in economic management or the budget -- or the environment. Whatever the case may be, we decided to ask the working level people to study and decide on which areas we should start administrative exchanges. As I stated in my earlier opening remarks, ASEAN countries have their respective cultures and traditions, and, if anything, these different cultures and traditions may be construed as being disjointed from an outsider's viewpoint. But, the unique traditions and cultures of each country, I believe, do provide the strength of ASEAN, because the ASEAN countries, by respecting their different cultures and traditions, have been able to build up their dialogue. So, we would like to cooperate in terms of protecting culture. I certainly cannot refer to all the many points that were covered in the two-hour meeting in this shortened press conference, but these are just some examples.

Ⅶ. Agenda for Prime Minister Hashimoto's visit to the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Q: Regarding the Japan-ASEAN Leaders Meeting, before you left Japan, you already had the hope that there would be regular talks with these leaders. But, in the series of discussions, I hear that some of the leaders showed somewhat hesitant responses. After you have finished all the talks with all of the leaders, what was the outcome?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: I do not think there was any leader who showed a passive or a negative response to the suggestion. But, for example, the Chairman of ASEAN said that, as Chairman, he could not currently make any specific response without consulting with the other members of ASEAN. That was one response I had. Some also suggested that this idea will be submitted to the next ASEAN summit meeting, and so on. But essentially, I do not think that there was any difference in response. In response to the proposal that I made, I think what we understand is that this idea will be studied internally in ASEAN. Then, there will be further discussions between Japan and ASEAN as to how this idea might be realized. One of the reasons we did not get to anything that might be called a conclusion, is that I was not visiting Thailand and the Philippines this time. As soon as I get back to Japan, I shall dispatch my deputy to these two countries to brief them on the contents of the discussions that I had with the ASEAN leaders I met this time, and also explain the purport of this proposal that I made to the countries I visited. So there is no question of what sort of consultations the ASEAN countries will be having from here on, but I think that this idea that I proposed can be realized in various manners.

Ⅷ. Future Japan summit meetings with countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Q: From the Japanese point of view, how often should these summits take place, and what should be on the agenda?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: Last year, with Chancellor Helmut Kohl of the Federal Republic of Germany, or with President Jacques Chirac of the French Republic we agreed that we should have at least a once-per-annum meeting between the leaders of Japan and Germany, or Japan and France, and that each time we should discuss what items should be on the agenda. So with regard to meetings with the ASEAN leaders, I hope we will be able to meet at least once a year, either in a formal or an informal way. We should be able to get together very closely to discuss matters of the time. The matters that we discuss may not be really urgent at the time we meet, but may have implications for twenty years and thirty years down the road. I think that it is necessary for us to engage in that sort of dialogue. We do have a forum called the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and then there is also the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). We may have opportunities to meet with ASEAN leaders on those occasions, as well. I do not think that there is a need to specify agenda items and meet across the table in a formal manner. There are various other manners in which we can meet. But, I hope that we will be meeting at least once a year in that manner.

Ⅸ. Union of Myanmar membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

Q: Did Myanmar figure in any of these talks with the ASEAN leaders? What is Japan's approach to finding a political solution to the problem in Myanmar?

Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto: In the near future, the seven ASEAN members will turn into the ASEAN Ten, including Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. This means that Myanmar will be brought into the international community and subjected to the international rules of the game. That, I have stated to the leaders I have met with. At the same time, I stated that their accession to ASEAN should not present a smokescreen to the autocratic rule back home. In Myanmar today, there is a very tense situation between the Government and the National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi. With the student movements -- their demonstrations -- I must say that uncertainty is really increasing. Including these uncertainties, we are watching with much concern the developments in Myanmar. We shall maintain our dialogue with both the Government of Myanmar and the National League for Democracy (NLD). We cannot allow a setback or reversal of this universal trend of democratization. We very much hope that the Government of Myanmar will work towards democratization, and make wise adjustments to that end. Thank you very much.

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Press Conference by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on the Occasion of His Visit to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN)