Press Conference by the Press Secretary 21 December 1999
- Announcement on the Donors' Meeting for East Timor
- Announcement on the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Berlin on conflict prevention
- Announcement on the visit to Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia of Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono
- Announcement on the resumption of the Red Cross-Red Cross talks between Japan and North Korea
- Questions regarding the resumption of talks in North Korea and matters relating to the signing of an agreement at the Red Cross-Red Cross talks
- Announcement on the Donors' Meeting for East Timor
Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon. I have several announcements to make. The first is on East Timor. As you know the Donors' Meeting on East Timor took place last week on 16-17 December in Tokyo co-chaired by the World Bank and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). We feel that this meeting which we hosted was very successful in the sense that the total pledges by the donor countries for the coming three years exceeded US$520 million which is broken down to US$150 million of humanitarian assistance, out of which Japan's pledge amounts to US$28 million which we have already announced. The other US$370 million for rehabilitation and development of East Timor is broken down into three categories. The first is the trust fund of the World Bank and other organizations. The second is the trust fund of UNTAET, which is designed to defray, for example, the salaries of the public servants in East Timor. The third category is other bilateral and multilateral assistance. Out of the US$370 million, Japan's pledge amounts to US$100 million in the coming three years which we announced just prior to the Donors' Meeting. In essence, the willingness of the donor countries to help East Timor dictates the concrete form of pledges which in total exceeded the expectations prior to the Donors' Meeting.
In parallel to the Donors' Meeting, President Xanana Gusmao of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNTRT) was visiting Japan, partly to attend this Donors's Meeting, and paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi. Throughout the Donors' Meeting and the meeting between President Gusmao and Prime Minister Obuchi, Japan conveyed the following four messages. The first is that it is important to continue the efforts toward national reconciliation. Secondly, it is important for UNTAET and the East Timorese people to work together. Thirdly, it is important for East Timor to build good relations with its neighboring countries, in particular the Republic of Indonesia and Australia. Fourthly, and this may be the most important point, the nation building of East Timor really depends on the efforts of the East Timorese themselves. We, on our part would like to extend as much assistance as possible to that end. In his meeting with President Gusmao, Prime Minister Obuchi said that Japan will consider extending support to those East Timorese who are studying in Indonesia and will be looking at the specific modalities for that. President Gusmao expressed his high appreciation for this and he also expressed his appreciation for Japan's assistance in general. One other point which Prime Minister Obuchi mentioned to President Gusmao is that we are studying the possibility of having some diplomatic presence in Dili for the purpose of conducting liaison and coordination with, for example, the people in UNTAET. This does not mean establishing an embassy, but we are talking about some physical presence. That is the comment on East Timor.
Related Information (Timor-Leste Situation (Archives))
- Announcement on the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Berlin on conflict prevention
Mr. Numata: My second announcement concerns the Special G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Berlin on conflict prevention which took place on 16-17 December and which Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono attended. I am not going to go into the details of this, but let me say that the whole question of conflict prevention -- that is the question of what we do, not only to settle conflicts but the question of what we can do to prevent the occurrence of conflict -- has been a matter of very keen and serious concern to the G8 countries. In the context of the Cologne G8 Summit this year, and especially in the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Cologne, this was raised as an important issue which needs to be tackled by the G8 countries. Of course, when people in the G8 were talking about it they had in mind such conflicts as Kosovo and East Timor and they also had in mind the question of what we could possibly do to prevent these conflicts because to deal with them after they have occurred proves to be much too costly. It was in that context that this meeting took place and the G8 foreign ministers discussed the various components of conflict prevention, which are enumerated in this document, as well as the possible approaches to be taken in dealing with this problem of conflict prevention. Foreign Minister Kono emphasized for example that in trying to prevent conflicts it is necessary to engage in steady incremental efforts which may in the end pay off dividends in the sense of preventing conflict. When he talked about steady incremental efforts, he included for example the efforts by the various non-governmental organizations concerned in dealing with humanitarian issues and also efforts toward eradicating poverty and to reduce the danger of famine and so forth. He also said that it is important for us to take a comprehensive approach to conflicts in the sense that perhaps we could think of it as a matrix in which one axis consists of the time frame. There arises the question of early warning or identifying the possible sources of conflicts, I mentioned for example poverty and so forth, and to try to deal with these. If unfortunately conflicts should occur, there is the question of trying to resolve these conflicts which would require sustained efforts. Then, there is also the question of post conflict rehabilitation and development as we indeed see in the cases of East Timor and Kosovo for example. There is this one axis which may be the time frame and there is another axis which is that in dealing with conflicts we are not just talking about what may be happening militarily, but we may be talking about the economic source of the conflicts, I mentioned poverty earlier, for example environmental problems, national rivalries, ethnic rivalries and so forth and the whole question of development. So at any given stage, you need to think about it not only in the time frame but also horizontally. You need to address these issues across a whole broad spectrum of issues. The point that Foreign Minister Kono made was that perhaps we need to bear this matrix in mind and try to work out a comprehensive approach to all this. Foreign Minister Kono expressed his intention, or the intention of Japan as the forthcoming Chair of the G8, to exert his best efforts to try to approach this issue as we work toward the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit in July 2000.
- Announcement on the visit to Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia of Minister for Foreign Affairs Yohei Kono
Mr. Numata: Foreign Minister Kono went to Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia and through these visits he reiterated Japan's intention to continue to help the parties concerned in Kosovo in their efforts toward reconciliation and co-existence. He mentioned in that context the US$100 million assistance which Japan is providing for the rehabilitation of Kosovo. He also talked with Japanese staff members of non-governmental organizations who are working on the ground as well as the Japanese staff members of the international organizations concerned. Also, in Macedonia he expressed Japan's intention to continue to help Macedonia which has absorbed a great influx of refugees and has had a considerable burden placed on it because of the situation in Kosovo, and as part of Japan's efforts to help Macedonia, Foreign Minister Kono expressed Japan's intention to extend some cultural grant assistance to Macedonia.
- Announcement on the resumption of the Red Cross-Red Cross talks between Japan and North Korea
Mr. Numata: As far as I know, the representatives at the Red Cross-Red Cross talks between Japan and North Korea resumed their meeting at about two o'clock. As I understand it, the Red Cross representatives, along with members of both the Government of Japan and the Government of North Korea participated in the process. They met first on 19 December in a sort of full session and throughout yesterday they were carrying out informal consultations on and off. These informal consultations lasted until this morning and they had a meeting again this afternoon from about two o'clock. They have been discussing humanitarian issues of concern to their respective sides, namely the question of the homecoming visits of the Japanese spouses of North Korean nationals, the issue of what we call the abduction cases or what the North Korean side calls the cases of missing Japanese nationals and also the question of food shortage in North Korea. We are hoping that these consultations which have lasted for about two days will be yielding some results.
- Questions regarding the resumption of talks in North Korea and matters relating to the signing of an agreement at the Red Cross-Red Cross talks
Q: What was the hold up before?
Mr. Numata: Both sides have expressed their concerns and have been engaged in this process of trying to see whether they can wrap up the discussion which has take place from the day before yesterday until today and perhaps they are putting their finishing touches on it.
Q: Can you give some more information regarding the possible preliminary talks for the normalization negotiations?
Mr. Numata: The plan is for the preliminary talks toward the resumption of the normalization negotiations to take place after the Red Cross-Red Cross consultations. As soon as the Red Cross-Red Cross talks are over we will be assessing the results and working toward the holding of the preliminary talks between the Japanese and North Korean authorities. All this is an ongoing process so I think we will have to wait until the Red Cross-Red Cross talks are over before we can accurately say exactly what sort of talks may be going on.
I can tell you this much. The Red Cross-Red Cross talks were resumed this afternoon at two o'clock Japan time and the representatives of both sides signed a document which contained the points of agreement on such questions as the missing Japanese nationals and the question of possible food aid to North Korea and also the homecoming visit of the Japanese spouses of North Korean nationals. I can tell you that much. I have not got the details of their agreement yet.
Q: Have they signed the agreement?
Mr. Numata: That is what I have just heard, yes.
Q: What is going to happen to the preparatory talks?
Mr. Numata: With this out of the way, I think that the representatives on the government side will be in touch with each other with a view to starting preliminary talks on normalization.
I can now give you the gist of what they signed and announced. Rather, let me do it this way. I will give it to you in the form of the wrap-up of the Red Cross-Red Cross talks. As I said, the Japanese Red Cross and the North Korean Red Cross met in Beijing from 19-21 December on the basis of the Joint Statement issued on the occasion of the mission to Pyong Yang of former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. The meeting was attended by the government representatives of both sides as well. In these meetings both sides talked in a constructive and good atmosphere about humanitarian issues of concern to each side. They talked about the homecoming visits of Japanese spouses of North Korean nationals, the accounting for the so- called missing Japanese nationals, food aid and the cases of Korean nationals who went missing before 1945. Each side developed a deeper understanding of the perception of the other and although the meeting went beyond the time frame originally scheduled, they were able to make the following joint announcement.
Firstly, they confirmed that the homecoming visits of Japanese spouses of North Korean nationals will be resumed sometime next spring. Secondly, with respect to the abduction issue, that is what the North Korean side calls the cases of missing persons, the North Korean side is to ask the relevant agencies in North Korea to carry our serious investigation. With respect to food assistance, the North Korean side explained the recent food situation in North Korea and the Japan Red Cross is to ask the Government of Japan to start food aid at a possible early date and the Government of Japan is to consider this question of food aid. Further, the North Korean side raised the question of accounting for those Korean people who went missing before 1945, and both sides are to work toward the resolution of this issue. Both sides finished the meeting in a good atmosphere and they are to meet again as necessary. Those are the main points of the announcement and I think the same points will be in the wire services now. We await news about the preliminary talks.
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