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.