ASEAN to cancel meet

ASEAN to cancel meet

SINGAPORE (Kyodo): The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) will have to give up a plan to convene a meeting between
its trade ministers and their Japanese, Chinese and South Korean
counterparts in Brunei in early September due to the Japanese
minister's schedule, according to Brunei government sources.

The sources said Japanese International Trade and Industry
Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto decided not to attend the planned
meeting as he will run in an election for president of his
Liberal Democratic Party, the largest force in Japan's three-
party ruling coalition, on Sept. 22.

The Japanese trade ministry will send a senior official to
Brunei on Saturday to formally report on Hashimoto's decision,
Japanese government officials said.

ASEAN had planned to hold the meeting between the trade
ministers of its seven members, including newly admitted Vietnam,
and those of Japan, China and South Korea on Sept. 10 on the
occasion of its annual ministerial.