Japan sould take the lead to ensure regional stability
Japan sould take the lead to ensure regional stability
The Daily Yomiuri, Asia News Network, Tokyo
Japan has maintained close relations with the founding members
of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- the
Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is scheduled to
leave for a weeklong tour of the five ASEAN nations.
The international political landscape has been undergoing
great changes since the terrorist attack on the United States on
Sept. 11, as shown by a newly formed antiterrorism alliance among
three military powers -- the United States, Russia and China.
In this sense, it is a critically important task for Japan to
shore up its relationship with Southeast Asian nations in mapping
out a diplomatic strategy. The significance of Koizumi's ASEAN
tour lies in this.
Japan should take the lead in working to ensure regional peace
and prosperity as an Asian leader. To accomplish this goal, this
country must further increase its cooperative ties with the ASEAN
countries in security, economic and other areas, while also
basing its diplomatic strategy on its alliance with the United
States.
The prime minister's itinerary includes separate talks with
the leaders of the five nations. On Monday, Koizumi is also
scheduled to deliver a speech about Japan's diplomatic policy
toward other Asian countries.
During these meetings, the prime minister will call for
efforts to step up relations between Japan and the ASEAN nations,
largely by listing three goals -- reforms and prosperity,
cooperation in ensuring stability and coordinated efforts to
build a better future in the region.
To accomplish reforms and prosperity, Koizumi will ask the
five ASEAN countries to back Japan's structural reform campaign
and in turn will pledge to support their reform efforts. To
promote cooperation in ensuring regional stability, the prime
minister will promise to aid the ASEAN nations in their efforts
to resolve the host of problems afflicting them, including ethnic
conflicts, movements of refugees, drug trafficking and infectious
diseases.
Koizumi is also scheduled to tell the ASEAN leaders that Japan
will support their struggle to better educate their peoples and
develop human resources, with the aim of jointly working to build
a better future in the region.
His planned address on Japan's diplomatic policy toward ASEAN
will stress the importance of building mutual trust among nations
in this region. Koizumi also hopes to emphasize the need to
establish a new cooperative relationship among these countries on
the basis of the Fukuda Doctrine, a set of guiding principles
laid down in 1977 by then Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in Manila
concerning Japan's diplomatic policy toward other Asian nations.
Economic recovery a sine qua non
We hope that Koizumi's speech will set forth a constructive
and well-founded blueprint for Japan's new partnership with the
ASEAN nations.
Among other things, the prime minister should reiterate his
determination to bring his country's economy back on the road to
recovery to promote reforms and achieve prosperity in the region.
Japan -- a nation whose economy is coming close to a deflationary
spiral -- could threaten the world economy. This is particularly
significant in that the global economy is increasingly weakening
in the wake of Sept. 11.
The prime minister should tell the ASEAN leaders what his
administration will do to end the recession as soon as possible
and put the economy back on track, a move that would serve to
revitalize the Asian economy as a whole. This will be essential
to put to rest concerns held by the ASEAN nations about the
Japanese economy.
China will be an invisible but prominent guest in Japan's
upcoming talks with the ASEAN countries. It is a matter of prime
importance for both Japan and ASEAN to think about what kind of
relationship they should build with China, a nation that has
emerged as a new power in Asia on the strength of its rapid
economic growth.
While they are watching its vast market with keen interest,
the ASEAN countries remain wary about China. This gives Japan
good reason to play a key role in determining what kind of
relationship Japan and the ASEAN nations should establish with
China.
Given all this, it is important for the prime minister to tell
the ASEAN leaders that Japan is prepared to form new ties with
their nations that could include an accord on comprehensive
economic partnership with ASEAN as a whole, beginning with a free
trade agreement to be signed with Singapore soon.