The Japanese government yesterday hailed embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso’s meeting with US President Barack Obama, but the opposition slammed the talks as being devoid of content.
Aso on Tuesday became the first foreign leader to visit Obama in Washington, where both leaders pledged to cooperate in fighting the global economic crisis and in responding to a potential North Korean missile test.
‘FRANK DIALOGUE’
“Both the leaders were able to hold a frank dialogue and build a personal relationship,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said.
“It was very significant to confirm that the world’s largest and second-largest economies should work together to tackle global issues under the alliance,” Kawamura told a news conference in Tokyo after the summit.
But the largest opposition group, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said that Aso, whose public support ratings have plummeted, no longer represented the country.
“We cannot expect effective negotiations by a prime minister who has lost the people’s trust,” DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa told reporters.
NOT ENOUGH
“I’m afraid the talks had nearly no content,” said Ozawa, who is leading in opinion polls ahead of elections later this year. “I don’t think America seriously discussed things with Aso.”
DPJ Secretary-General Yukio Hatoyama charged that “if [Aso] feels overjoyed to be the first to be invited to the presidential office, it just means that [Japan’s] diplomatic subservience to the United States will continue.”
Aso remains under intense pressure after a series of political problems including the resignation of his finance minister last week for appearing drunk at a major international meeting.
Aso, who must call elections by September, has seen his Cabinet’s approval ratings steadily decline from more than 40 percent when he took office five months ago to just 11 percent, a poll this week found.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS