U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) meets Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at the State Department in Washington January 18, 2013. REUTERS/Gary Cameron |
By Andrew Quinn | Reuters – 01/19/2013
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assured Japan on Friday of U.S. support in Tokyo's dispute with Beijing over a string of islands and invited new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Washington in late February for a meeting with President Barack Obama.
Clinton held a working lunch with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio
Kishida, and both emerged pledging that U.S.-Japan security and economic
ties would remain strong following Abe's landslide election victory
last month.
"Our alliance with Japan remains the cornerstone of American engagement
with the region," Clinton told reporters, noting a wide range of
cooperation on everything from disaster relief to the stand-off over
nuclear North Korea.
Clinton, due to step down in coming weeks, again affirmed that the
United States would stand by its longtime ally in its territorial
dispute with China over islets in the East China Sea claimed by both
countries.
Tensions over the tiny islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in
China, have flared in recent months, one of several maritime territorial
disputes involving China that have worsened as Washington seeks to
shift its security focus to Asia.
"Although the United States does not take a position on the ultimate
sovereignty of the islands, we acknowledge they are under the
administration of Japan," Clinton said, repeating the long-standing U.S.
position on the dispute.
"We oppose any unilateral actions that would seek to undermine Japanese
administration, and we urge all parties to take steps to prevent
incidents and manage disagreements through peaceful means."
Kishida signaled that Abe, who had taken a tough stance on the dispute
during his election campaign, was not eager to escalate the conflict.
"While Japan will not concede and will uphold our fundamental position
that the Senkaku islands are an inherent territory of Japan, we intend
to respond calmly so as not to provoke China," he said through an
interpreter.
Clinton announced that Abe had been invited to Washington in the third week of February to hold his first meeting with Obama.
FACING CHINA
Abe had hoped to make the United States his first overseas visit
following his election last month on a platform that called for both
reviving Japan's struggling economy and coping with China's rising power
in the region.
But the visit was postponed due to Obama's tight schedule, and Abe
traveled instead to Southeast Asia before cutting the trip short this
week to return home after Japanese workers were caught up in the hostage
crisis in Algeria.
U.S. officials describe a generally healthy relationship with Tokyo,
albeit one hampered by frequent changes in the Japanese leadership.
Kishida is the sixth Japanese foreign minister to hold office during the
four years that Clinton has been America's top diplomat.
Abe came to power partly on a nationalist platform and wants to revise
Japan's U.S.-drafted constitution adopted after World War Two. U.S.
officials have indicated they would like to see Japan loosen
constitutional restraints on its military to enable a bigger global
security role.
The United States and Japan have also sought to cooperate on plans to
streamline the U.S. military presence in the southern Japanese island of
Okinawa including proposals to move the Futenma air base to a new site.
Clinton said she was confident that the two sides could make further
progress on the issue, while Kishida said the Abe administration was
committed to working through a framework deal the two sides announced
last year.
(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert. Editing by Warren Strobel and Cynthia Osterman)
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