Japan, on the eve of a visit by French President Jacques Chirac, said yesterday that the lifting of the EU arms embargo on China being pushed by France would be a "big problem" for Asian stability.
"Considering stability in Asia, the United States and Japan share the awareness that resuming arms exports would be a big problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, told reporters.
Hosoda said the issue of the arms embargo would likely be on the agenda when Chirac meets Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi tomorrow.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit to Tokyo last week, agreed with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura that the two allies should cooperate to oppose EU moves to lift the embargo.
Chirac said Wednesday he still expected an agreement to lift the ban by the end of June, despite signs the 25-member EU bloc could delay its decision after China authorized the use of force to invade democratic Taiwan.
US lawmakers have threatened to levy punitive trade sanctions on European companies if the EU lifts the embargo, which was imposed after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989.
The US has some 47,000 troops in Japan, most of them on Okinawa -- only 550km from Taiwan.
Hosoda said another issue that would be raised in talks with Chirac would be Europe's push to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor in France despite a rival bid for the project by Tokyo.
A group of lawmakers from Koizumi's ruling Liberal Democratic Party yesterday sent him a petition urging him to be more outspoken on backing Japan's bid for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
"To meet this objective, we would like Prime Minister Koizumi to clearly tell President Chirac our country's position on the ITER during the Japan-France summit," said the petition, according to Kyodo News Agency.
Negotiations are deadlocked with the US and South Korea supporting Japan's offer to build the ITER in Rokkasho, a northern village near the Pacific Ocean, while China and Russia back the EU bid to put it in Cadarache, southern France.
The multibillion-dollar project, which would emulate the sun's nuclear fusion, is designed to one day generate inexhaustible supplies of electricity, but is not expected to be operational before 2050.
Chirac, accompanied by his wife Bernadette and French business leaders, will arrive in the western city of Osaka today to watch sumo wrestling and then head by train to Nagoya to see the World Exposition.
From there he will go to Tokyo tomorrow to meet Koizumi and on Monday he will lunch with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
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