Aso, Obama to stress alliance in tackling economic crisis, Afghanistan

+

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 Kyodo -
U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso will
underscore the multi-layered bilateral alliance when they meet Tuesday to
coordinate response to the global economic crisis, climate change and regional
issues such as Afghanistan and North Korea.
Aso is the first foreign leader to be invited by Obama to the White House, but
uncertainties remain as to what concrete results can be achieved due to the
premier's support ratings having plunged to critical levels at home, with many
believing he may not be able to cling to office for much longer.
The talks Tuesday morning will come shortly before Obama addresses a joint
session of Congress to outline his domestic and foreign policy agenda.
Aimed at sending a message of close cooperation between the world's two largest
economies in the face of the global economic meltdown, the leaders will agree
to implement appropriate measures to spur their economies and secure budgets to
help developing nations and international financial organizations overcome the
crisis, Japanese officials said.
They will also coordinate measures and work together in preparing for the Group
of 20 financial summit in London on April 2.
Meanwhile, Aso will seek a commitment from Obama to fight protectionism and is
likely to reiterate Japan's concerns over the ''Buy American'' provision in the
$787 billion U.S. economic stimulus package signed into law by Obama last week.
To demonstrate Tokyo's support for the U.S.-led fight against terrorism in
Afghanistan, for which Obama recently approved an additional deployment of
17,000 troops, Japan will agree to take part in a U.S. review of its
comprehensive strategy on Afghanistan for stabilizing the war-torn country.
Aso will also convey plans to appoint a special envoy to Afghanistan and
Pakistan to better coordinate aid and other assistance there, as well as to
work with U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke.
He is also expected to announce plans to provide fresh aid, including
low-interest loans, to Pakistan, which Japan considers a ''front-line state''
in fighting terrorism, especially given its long border with Afghanistan.
In return, Obama will likely reaffirm high-level participation at a donor
conference on Pakistan eyed for April or after in Tokyo.
But given the domestic political turmoil and constraints under the pacifist
Constitution, such as on the use of force and weapons by the Self-Defense
Forces, critics said it will be difficult for Aso to commit to personnel
dispatches as former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi did in Iraq for Obama's
predecessor George W. Bush.
On North Korea, Japan will reiterate the need to resolve not only the nuclear
standoff but also to deal comprehensively deal with Pyongyang's missile threats
and abductions of Japanese citizens.
To that end, Aso and Obama are expected to reaffirm close bilateral and
multilateral cooperation at the six-party denuclearization talks.
Japan, which was upset last year when then President Bush erased North Korea
from a blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism before the North had fully
addressed the abductions, will also seek the Obama administration's cooperation
on pressing Pyongyang to reinvestigate and come clean over the dozen or more
unresolved cases.
Also on the agenda is global warming, an issue on which the two allies have
much closer positions now than during Bush's presidency, and Aso and Obama will
agree to work together in forming a post-2012 global emissions cut protocol,
including exploring ways to win cooperation from China and others.
Japan is eager for both the United States and China, the world's top two
emitters, to take part so that the new framework after the current Kyoto
Protocol expires can be effective.
With Obama placing emphasis on clean energy, including in job creation
measures, Aso plans to propose that Japan and the United States combine their
expertise to further develop new alternative energies, promote the use of
hybrid and other next generation vehicles, expand markets for energy efficient
products and boost peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The leaders will also reaffirm plans to steadily implement a roadmap to realign
the U.S. military presence in Japan by 2014 to reduce local burdens, as
stipulated in an agreement signed between the two nations' foreign ministers
last week.
After the talks with Obama, Aso will meet former U.S. senior officials,
including John Hamre, president of Washington's Center for Strategic and
International Studies, and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage.
Aso will then pay tribute at the Arlington Cemetery and meet Hawaii Sen. Daniel
Inouye before departing for Tokyo in the evening.
The beleaguered prime minister, just five months into office, arrived in
Washington on Monday night with his approval ratings having plunged to
critically low levels, at 13.4 percent in a Kyodo News poll, and the Japanese
economy suffering from its worst postwar crisis.
Calls from not only the opposition but within his own ruling coalition have
been mounting for him to step down or call an early general election, which may
possibly end the Liberal Democratic Party's almost half-century in power.
Obama, who held talks with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa
last week on his first international trip, is set to meet British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown in Washington on March 3 to discuss the financial crisis
and prepare for the upcoming London summit.
==Kyodo
2009-02-24 23:49:06