FMs gather for Asia-Europe meeting

FMs gather for Asia-Europe meeting

Agencies, Tokyo/Seoul

North Korea's nuclear weapons program, rising oil prices, and human rights in Myanmar top the agenda for a meeting of Asian and European foreign ministers starting on Friday in Japan.

"When two continents speak with one voice, they send a very powerful message," European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in Brussels before heading to Kyoto, Japan. "Asia and Europe will address together some of the most critical issues of our times."

A host of bilateral talks are expected on the sidelines of the ministerial session of the Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM -- including a Japan-China meeting, scheduled for Saturday, on tensions that triggered recent anti-Japan protests in China.

North Korea also raised tensions this week by apparently test- firing a short-range missile toward Japan. International concerns over its nuclear ambitions are mounting, with international negotiations on the North's nuclear program stalled since last June.

South Korea's foreign minister Ban Ki-Moon, publicly frustrated over the stalled six-way talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, said in Seoul on Thursday that he was looking at China to do more to revive the negotiations.

"I will call on China to play a more active role (in getting North Korea back to the stalled nuclear talks) and also have in- depth talks with Japan to maintain cooperation." Ban said at Incheon Airport before leaving for Japan to ASEM meeting.

Japan and the U.S. may start preparations in late May to refer North Korea to the UN Security Council over its nuclear weapons ambitions, the right-leaning Sankei Shimbun newspaper said on Thursday.

Japan and Germany are expected to lobby at the Kyoto meeting for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council, to join the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has pushed for a decision on key reforms by September.

Trade and economics are also up for discussion, with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo pledging to "mobilize ASEM to support our efforts to address the serious issue of the rising price of oil."

Meanwhile, other issues loomed.

Japan-China relations plummeted to their lowest point in decades last month, during anti-Japan demonstrations in China protesting Tokyo's wartime past and its bid for a permanent Security Council seat.

Similar grievances, along with a territorial dispute, have also frayed relations between South Korea and Japan. Japan, China and South Korea are scheduled for a trilateral meeting on Saturday.

In an easing of its previous policy of shunning Myanmar's military regime, the European Union said it plans to hold its first ministerial-level talks with Myanmar on the sidelines at Kyoto. The EU has long criticized Myanmar's human rights record, its failure to introduce democratic reforms, and its detention of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The meeting will be an opportunity to raise EU concerns about the continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees, deficiencies in the democratic process, and human rights," the EU said in a statement this week.