Koizumi wins Thailand's backing for his vision of free trade in Asia

Koizumi wins Thailand's backing for his vision of free trade in Asia

Agencies, Bangkok

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday won the backing of his Thai counterpart for a free trade vision in Southeast Asia, seen as Tokyo's counterweight to China's growing influence in the region.

Koizumi held talks with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on the third leg of a week-long tour of five ASEAN members, selling Tokyo's new policy towards the region.

"The relationship between Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should be not confined to a bloc," Koizumi, who has already visited the Philippines and Malaysia, said.

"It should include China and South Korea and even Australia and New Zealand. We want to consider ways to contribute to the world, taking into account a framework or broad cooperation."

Koizumi heads to Indonesia on Saturday and is scheduled to wrap up his trip with a speech in Singapore on Sunday, outlining Japan's new Southeast Asia policy.

The Japanese premier will arrive in Jakarta on Saturday and meet Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri in the afternoon. He was scheduled to meet Indonesian Vice President Hamzah Haz and attend a state dinner hosted by President Megawati.

Koizumi will also visit the National Heroes' Cemetery in Kalibata on Sunday morning and leave Jakarta for Singapore around noon.

Koizumi got Thaksin's full support for a proposal to create an economic cooperative "community", a Japanese official said.

Thaksin also threw his weight behind Koizumi's vision for a comprehensive economic cooperation framework among Japan and ASEAN, centering on free-trade agreements (FTAs), seen as Tokyo's bid not to lag behind China's burgeoning influence in the region.

China agreed with ASEAN to establish a free trade area within 10 years at an ASEAN+3 (Japan, South Korea and China) summit last November, rattling Japan, which saw China stealing the initiative in a region it long regarded as its backyard.

Koizumi has already clinched a FTA with Singapore, to be signed on Sunday and the first such bilateral pact for Tokyo.

Japan wants to use the agreement, as well as efforts to complete another with Thailand, as a springboard for forging similar deals with the rest of the 10-member ASEAN.

But Koizumi said the free trade framework will not be built overnight, and Japanese officials said Tokyo did not intend to merely follow China, whose influence is expected to strengthen now that Beijing has joined the World Trade Organization and its economy continues to boom while others in the region wilt.

"We don't think that it is the right moment for us to propose an FTA, as another country has proposed," said one senior official, adding that cooperation in various areas should be sought first.

"And then after having done so, if it proved that an FTA is something viable, we don't exclude that possibility," he added.

Unlike China, Japan has not set a time frame for concluding the free trade zone with ASEAN.

Koizumi and Thaksin agreed to start talks on an FTA, a proposal the Thai leader suggested in his November visit to Tokyo, but such a deal could prove difficult.

Thailand is a major exporter of agricultural goods, most notably rice, and Japanese lawmakers who want to protect local farmers are unlikely to support an FTA.

Even completing the trade agreement with Singapore, which has no significant agricultural exports, faces domestic opposition in Japan on fears the deal would threaten their businesses.

"It's no secret that in Japan, like many countries, agriculture is the most sensitive issue," the official said.

Koizumi has agreed that Japan would play a more active role in the reconciliation process in Myanmar, officials said on Friday.

"Japan agreed in principle to be a core in creating stability and reconciliation in Myanmar," Thai government spokesman Yongyuth Tiyapairat said after the meeting.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council and Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) have been involved in secret discussions on a democratization process since October 2000, but analysts say the talks are more or less stalled.

"It is important for Myanmar to promote democratization and proceed with the construction of the nation," Koizumi told Thaksin, according to a Japanese foreign ministry official.

Koizumi faced protests in Bangkok where about 500 demonstrators gathered peacefully outside Government House in opposition to partially Japanese-funded coal-fired power plants planned for southern Thailand.

Also on the agenda would be the problem of illegal drugs in the region, and unity and peace in Myanmar, Yongyut said.

Military-run Myanmar is the world's largest producer of heroin and a major source of amphetamines that are wreaked social havoc in several Asian countries.