Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi yesterday underlined Tokyo's concern over the EU's plans to lift an arms embargo on China at a summit with European leaders in Luxembourg, while in Manila, Japan's defense minister agreed to expand cooperation with the Philippines.
The EU's presidency insisted that ending the 16-year-old ban, slapped on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, would not threaten security in the region.
Koizumi, speaking after the talks, said he believed the 25-member bloc understands Tokyo's opposition to the plans.
"I did express our concern and I think ... Japan's concern is very well understood," he said in a joint press conference with EU leaders including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
He added that the EU had made clear to him that, "while fully understanding the concerns of Japan, [it] should like to deal with the matter so that it would not lead to a problem."
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, reiterated that the bloc hopes to reach an agreement on lifting the plan by the end of June.
But he also underlined that a lifting of the arms embargo would have "no material consequences" -- an apparent reference to any increase in arms sales to China.
"We are in the process of discussing the subject with our closest partners, that means Japan [and] the United States," he said. "We take very seriously the observations made by both Japan and the US.
"The intention of the EU if it reaches an accord on lifting the embargo is not to develop arms exports to China in a way that would [increase] the security concerns regularly mentioned by our partners," he said.
In Manila, defense ministers from the Philippines and Japan agreed to expand cooperation, especially in the areas of maritime security, disaster management and counter-terrorism.
Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz and visiting Japanese Defense Minister Yoshinori Ohno also agreed to develop a mechanism wherein they can meet annually to discuss security issues.
"The first step is to develop a mechanism for an annual continuation of the political security dialogue and the frequency of the exchange of visits between senior and middle level officers," Cruz said after meeting with Ohno who was in Manila for an overnight visit.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
RSS