Japan, Europe Pledge Greater Cooperation
Thursday, January 11, 2007; 9:46 PM
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Japan's new prime minister, breaking tradition by visiting Europe before the United States, agreed Thursday to boost cooperation with the European Union in the face of threats ranging from climate change to North Korea's nuclear program.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was at European Union headquarters as part of a tour aimed at giving his country a higher international profile.
  European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, right, talks to the media during a joint press conference with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, at the end of their meeting at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Thursday Jan. 11, 2007. (AP Photo/Thierry Charlier) (Thierry Charlier - AP) Special Report
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He is seeking support for Japan's bid to secure a permanent, veto-wielding, seat on the U.N. Security Council as welk as his efforts to change the country's postwar pacifist constitution so Japan's defense forces can play a bigger role in international peacekeeping missions.
He is due Friday to pay the first-ever visit by a Japanese leader to NATO headquarters. Japanese officials traveling with the premier said constitutional restraints will likely prevent Abe from offering combat troops to support NATO's 32,000-strong force in Afghanistan.
Traditionally, EU-Japan meetings have focused on economic issues. Japan and the 27-nation European bloc are major trading partners and together they represent over 40 percent of global economic output.
However, Abe's talks with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso touched on a wide range of political issues from North Korea and Iraq to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, efforts to develop democracy in Central Asia and relations with China.
"We agreed that Japan and the European Union should further step up such cooperation in addressing the international situation," Abe told reporters after the meeting.
Abe gained support from Belgium and Britain for Japan's diplomatic drive to gain a full-time Security Council seat.
Abe, who took office in September, is making his first official trip outside Asia. Japanese media have reported that Abe wants to stress his all-around foreign policy by visiting Europe ahead of a trip to Washington which could take place in the spring.
The Brussels leg came after Barroso unveiled a new EU energy strategy aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next 13 years. Barroso said Europe and Japan were leading the world in fighting global warming and appealed to the United States and other major polluters to do more to help.
Barroso also expressed European backing for diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to drop its nuclear weapons program and assured Abe that the EU had no plans for an imminent lifting of its arms embargo on China.
EU nations are divided on whether to lift the export ban imposed in 1989. Abe said he stressed Japan's opposition to lifting the embargo.
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On the Web:
EU delegation in Japan: http:/
European Commission: http:/
Japanese PM's office: http:/
NATO: http:/
