Japan PM calls for creation of regional East Asian community.

29/1 Tass 98

TOKYO, January 29 (Itar-Tass) - Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
has called for the creation in East Asia of a regional community like the
EU at the same time relying ion the alliance with the United States. The
government head made this statement delivering his programme speech at a
meeting of the lower house of parliament on Friday.

The prime minister said that one of the main goals of Tokyo's
diplomacy is the building of the so-called East Asian community.
According to the Kyodo news agency, regarding the Japan-US security
alliance, Hatoyama said it may have changed in its quality over the past
five decades since the countries revised their security pact in 1960, but
that its importance will not diminish in the decades to come. In his
speech to the first ordinary Diet session since taking office in
mid-September, he said he will continue to cooperate with US President
Barack Obama toward developing the alliance into a multilayered one and
creating a world free from nuclear weapons as advocated by Obama.
Among other foreign policy issues, Hatoyama, who leads the ruling
Democratic Party of Japan, also expressed fresh eagerness to form an East
Asian community, a European Union-style framework for regional
cooperation, the agency reported.
In an apparent bid to allay concerns among Washington officials that
their economy may be kept out of the envisaged bloc, Hatoyama underlined
that the community would never be an exclusive economic zone that would
compete with other regions. "In that sense, the importance of the
unwavering Japan-US alliance will not only remain unchanged, but will also
be an indispensable prerequisite for creating an East Asian community,"
Hatoyama said.
"We need to promote regional economic cooperation (in the envisioned
community), while also reaffirming that beefing up a multilateral free
trading system would benefit us most," he said. In terms of bilateral ties
with neighbouring nations, Hatoyama said Japan will enhance its strategic,
mutually beneficial relations with China, while seeking a future-oriented
friendship with South Korea, according to Kyodo.
To contain North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Japan will work more
closely than ever with its four partners in the six-party talks -- China,
South Korea, Russia, and the United States.
Hatoyama reiterated that his government will make all-out efforts to
have all victims of Pyongyang's abductions returned to Japan as soon as
possible and that it will comprehensively resolve the North Korean nuclear
and missile development issues as well as the abduction issue before
normalizing ties with the reclusive state.
Hatoyama's speech to the 174th ordinary Diet session was the second
longest, after one given by late former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto
in January 1996, according to Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koji Matsui,
the agency said.
Among other issues, Hatoyama said his goal of cutting greenhouse gas
emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 would serve as an
opportunity to improve the health of the nation's economy and create new
growth, defying claims that he has laid out too ambitious a goal and
failed to lead other countries to follow suit.
-0-ezh


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