ASEAN foreign ministers welcome Obuchi's election
ASEAN foreign ministers welcome Obuchi's election
MANILA (AP): Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations welcomed Keizo Obuchi's election as head of Japan's ruling party yesterday, expressing confidence he could bail Japan out of its economic troubles.
Most said his links with the trading bloc, gained through years as Japan's foreign minister, will enable Japan to better help financially-ravaged Southeast Asian countries.
"We hope this contact he had with us will provide the kind of leadership we would expect from Japan," said Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi. "We hope that they will play a more active role and they would be able to help us."
Obuchi, 61, was elected president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party yesterday, a position that virtually guarantees he will be chosen as Japan's next prime minister because of the party's majority in Japan's lower house of parliament.
Although Japan is burdened with its own economic woes, Badawi said Japan's role remains crucial in helping Asian economies recover from the region's continuing financial crisis.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said he expects no basic changes in the policies of Obuchi, who comes from the same party as his predecessor, Ryutaro Hashimoto.
The foreign ministers began an annual meeting yesterday expected to be dominated by discussions on how to extricate the region from the crisis.
Prior to his election, Obuchi himself was invited to a post- ministerial meeting next week with the ASEAN ministers representing Japan, one of the group's 10 dialogue partners.
Reports from Tokyo said yesterday that Obuchi will visit Manila tomorrow to meet foreign ministers from major Asian and Western nations.
Obuchi is expected to be elected prime minister next week by Japan's Parliament.
ASEAN countries, whose economies are strongly integrated to that of Japan, have in the past urged Tokyo to hasten reforms of its financial system.
"It has been a common expectation that Japan would put its economic house in more effective order so that it could revive its own economy and could be able to pull along other economies, which during the past few years have been very closely integrated with the Japanese economy," said Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan.
"I do believe the new administration in Japan understands that expectation and will respond to that expectation favorably," he said.
In a statement, Philippine President Joseph Estrada congratulated Obuchi, saying he hoped Japan, under the new leader, would take a more active role in ASEAN's affairs. ASEAN consists of Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.