Japan is widening dialog to ease tensions<\/p>\n
By Pierre-Antoine Donnet<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AFP): Japan is widening contacts with other Asian
\ncountries to strengthen security dialog and reduce the risks of
\narmed conflict sparking in the region.<\/p>\n
Regular defense dialogs promoting \"confidence-building
\nmeasures\" will be taken a step further with a meeting in December
\nof military officers from 13 Asia-Pacific nations to create a new
\nvenue for post-Cold War security dialog.<\/p>\n
Under the auspices of the National Institute for Defense
\nStudies (NIDS), funded by the Japanese Defense Agency, the
\nunprecedented conference follows the July ASEAN Regional Forum
\n(ARF) in Bangkok, also a precedent for regional dialog.<\/p>\n
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
\nSingapore and Thailand. The ARF groups foreign ministers of ASEAN
\nwith counterparts from key trading partners and major regional
\nplayers like China, the European Union, Japan, Russia and the
\nUnited States.<\/p>\n
Under the new Japanese initiative, middle-ranking officers --
\nmajors and lieutenant colonels -- will come from Australia,
\nCanada, China, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea, the United
\nStates and the ASEAN six.<\/p>\n
They will stay three weeks in Japan to discuss regional
\nsecurity concerns. This year, Vietnam, a candidate for ASEAN
\nmembership, Myanmar and India have asked to join the 1995
\nmeeting, and their prospects are good.<\/p>\n
\"We support the idea,\" Major General Hiromichi Muromoto, vice
\npresident of the NIDS, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Japan has also organized for the past six years an annual
\nseminar on security which groups senior officers from ASEAN
\ncountries.<\/p>\n
\"There is almost no day when we don't welcome foreign
\nvisitors, very often Asians, with whom we talk openly on security
\nmatters,\" Muromoto stressed.<\/p>\n
China, whose military development program disturbs Tokyo,
\nregularly sends military officials to Japan.<\/p>\n
The director-general of the Japanese Defense Agency,
\nTokuichiro Tamazawa, announced Tuesday that he had invited his
\nChinese counterpart, Defense Minister Chi Haotian, to renew high-
\nlevel defense contacts broken off after the 1989 Tiananmen Square
\nmassacre of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Security dialogs are especially important for Japan because,
\nunlike North America or western Europe, Asia's potential sources
\nof conflict are numerous: China and Taiwan, multinational
\ndisputes over the Spratly and Paracel islands, the two Koreas,
\nand the India-Pakistan rivalry.<\/p>\n
\"If we want consolidate stability in the region, it is
\nnecessary for each country to feel free from any military threat.<\/p>\n
The first stage is, therefore, greater transparency and more
\ndialog,\" said Gotaro Ogawa, deputy director-general of the
\nforeign ministry's intelligence and analysis bureau.<\/p>\n
The collapse of the Soviet Union had generated great
\nuncertainty, especially over its nuclear arsenal.<\/p>\n
But despite the long dispute over the Kuril islands, occupied
\nby Russia and claimed by Japan, Moscow and Tokyo have gone ahead
\nwith regular exchanges on their military plans.<\/p>\n
The crisis triggered by the suspected nuclear arms program of
\nNorth Korea in turn has produced triangular cooperation among
\nSeoul, Tokyo and Beijing, Japanese diplomats note.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/japan-is-widening-dialog-to-ease-tensions-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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