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Background Briefing on Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting

Speaker: Mr. Naoto Hisajima
Title: Deputy Director
Second Southeast Asia Division
Date: December 12, 1997
Time: 14:20 to 14:39
Location: Conference Room 579
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Attendants:

Name Affliation
Ms. Yvonne CHANG Reuters (United Kingdom)
Mr. Mohamed ELDESOUKY Al Ahram (Egypt)
Mr. Audzei ILIACHENKO Novosti (Russian Federation)
Mr. M. KANABAYASHI The Wall Street Journal (U.S.)
Mr. Kwan Wey KIM Straits Times (Taiwan)
Mr. Kazuhiro KINOSHITA Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
  1. Briefing status and introduction of the speaker
  2. Introduction and background of the upcoming summit meeting
  3. Purpose of the visit
  4. Human resources development
  5. Support to small- and medium-sized industries and supporting industries
  6. Global issues
  7. Security
  8. Closer dialogue between leaders
  9. Schedule for the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting
  10. Japan-ASEAN+3 Meeting

Ⅰ. Briefing status and introduction of the speaker

Official of the International Press Division: Today's background briefing on the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting is given by Deputy Director Naoto Hisajima of the Second Southeast Asia Division. Since today's briefing is on a background basis, we ask that you use only the attribution of Foreign Ministry Official and not to quote him by name or title.

Ⅱ. Introduction and background of the upcoming summit meeting

Deputy Director Naoto Hisajima of the Second Southeast Asia Division: I am very happy to brief you today on Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's visit to Malaysia next week to attend the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting. We distributed a sheet of paper to you which describes the significance of the visit as we see it. Based on this paper, I will briefly touch upon the background of the Summit Meeting to be held next week. ASEAN is 30 years old this year. The situation surrounding ASEAN has been very optimistic, not only in the economic area, but in the political area. The ASEAN initiatives have been very active, for example, in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). However, the recent instability in the economies and currencies in ASEAN countries and East Asia as a whole has had a great influence all over this region. Under these circumstances, the leaders of East Asia -- ASEAN plus Japan, China and the Republic of Korea -- will meet and discuss a wide range of issues, without any strict limits on the topics. We feel that ASEAN faces challenges, especially economic instability. We think that the bulk of this discussion will be on this economic instability and how the leaders of this region will fix and deal with this difficulty together. I would not exclude the possibility of leaders discussing other issues, especially the cooperative relationship between Japan and ASEAN. As we put down in (b) of the paper, ASEAN is such an important region to Japan. Prime Minister Hashimoto paid a visit to ASEAN countries last January and launched initiatives now called the Hashimoto Doctrine. This Summit Meeting is in some way a follow-up to that visit in January by cooperating in projects and programs between Japan and ASEAN. Examples of cooperation will follow in this paper in part II entitled, Purpose of the Visit.

Ⅲ. Purpose of the visit

The purpose of the visit is as I already mentioned, which is to first affirm the determination of ASEAN and Asian leaders to face the challenges of economic instability and show a direction for cooperation, especially based on the framework agreed on in Manila last month. Other cooperative measures are also quite epoch-making. For example, in (i) reaffirming Japan's support for ASEAN, which is entering a new stage, we feel that, based on this recent instability of ASEAN, it is important and necessary for Japan to cooperate with ASEAN countries in their efforts in economic structural reform and continued liberalization, because those measures are key for the future development of ASEAN. Concretely, there are two pillars to carry this out. One is human resource development and the second is support to small- and medium-sized industries and supporting industries of ASEAN countries.

Ⅳ. Human resources development

Human resources development has long been on the agenda of ASEAN countries, because it has been said that it is a bottleneck for development of many countries there. We think that it is utterly important for Japan to cooperate in this area, utilizing not only Official Development Assistance (ODA), but other tools as well. We will hope to show to ASEAN a sort of package of how we will cooperate to develop the human resources of ASEAN countries from management leaders, technocrats and those who should be trained in many techniques.

Ⅴ. Support to small- and medium-sized industries and supporting industries

The second pillar, support to small- and medium-sized industries and supporting industries, has also been said to be an impediment to the development of ASEAN countries. Many ASEAN countries have wanted to grow their own capital. But, while doing so, they face constraints of not having enough supporting industries, e.g., the parts industry in the case of automobile manufacturing. So, we -- we meaning not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but in cooperation with the other relevant ministries of the Government of Japan as a whole -- wish to extend cooperative measures to ASEAN to develop and support these industries.

Ⅵ. Global issues

Another important agenda item for the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting is global issues. Environment and energy, international terrorism, health and welfare, etc., are global issues that one single country cannot solve by itself. Japan already has a program to cooperate on these issues with the United States and some developed countries. But, we hope to initiate similar projects and a package of initiatives with the ASEAN countries. In fact, this has been launched in January as a part of the Hashimoto Doctrine. This upcoming Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting will be yet another occasion for us to reaffirm our commitment to this task, and also an occasion to talk about we can go forward more concretely.

Ⅶ. Security

The next area is political and security. At the ministerial level, we have a forum called the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). This forum is important for the leaders of this region to reaffirm confidence-building through the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). We also hope to develop political and security dialogues with some ASEAN countries as well.

Ⅷ. Closer dialogue between leaders

The next item is closer dialogue between leaders. This, in a sense, is a follow-up to the January initiative. In January, Prime Minister Hashimoto proposed to the ASEAN leaders that the leaders of Japan-ASEAN should meet more frequently. Indeed, this Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting in December is, in a sense, the first chance for Japan-ASEAN leaders to meet together since January. Some leaders have met on occasion at APEC or in some other bilateral talks, but all ASEAN leaders will be present at this meeting and the Japanese Prime Minister will join them. This is the first meeting of its kind since Prime Minister Hashimoto proposed having a closer dialogue among Japan-ASEAN leaders in January. That itself is quite meaningful, because we feel that dialogue between leaders, in itself, contributes to closer cooperative relations between Japan and any other country.

Ⅸ. Schedule for the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting

The Prime Minister is scheduled to leave on Sunday. He will stay two nights in Malaysia. He will be back to Tokyo on Tuesday, 16 December. On Sunday, there will be no official function. On Monday, 15 December, there will be an ASEAN+3 Meeting in the afternoon. On Tuesday morning, there will be the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting.

Ⅹ. Japan-ASEAN+3 Meeting

That is the basic idea, background and purpose for Prime Minister Hashimoto's visit, and the agenda and schedule for the Japan-ASEAN Summit Meeting next week. We also have an informal summit meeting between Japan, China, the Republic of Korea and ASEAN -- the so-called Japan-ASEAN+3 Meeting. This is something that ASEAN proposed to have. We were informed by ASEAN that this meeting was designed for an informal and frank exchange of views, and there is no strict limit on topics for leaders to talk about. We think that this meeting will inevitably focus on the recent economic situations in East Asia. As I said at the outset of this briefing, we think that it is meaningful for leaders of this region to show their determination to face these challenges together. It is to show to the world that the leaders are committed to overcoming this challenge. We think that the discussion may cover other issues as well -- political and security. The primary focus may be on, as ASEAN proposed, "perspective of East Asia in the 21st century." Beyond that, we are not sure what the leaders will talk about, and we will only know after the leaders talk. Recent security issues are a possible topic, as well as environmental issues, the Mekong Delta development and Asia-Europe relations. Those are topics suggested by the ASEAN side. We think that the discussion on the recent economic and currency situations which have been seen in this region will be the primary topics of this meeting. We feel that this meeting is very opportune for Japan as it is another chance to have a closer dialogue between Japan-ASEAN leaders. Just because the economic situations are fluctuating so much in this region -- to show to the world that the leaders of ASEAN, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea are facing squarely the issues is the biggest meaning of all.

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