Koizumi says backs friendly Sino-Japan ties
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-29 06:37
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday he wants friendly
ties with China.
|
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi boards his special flight for Canada and the U.S. at Tokyo's
Haneda airport June 27, 2006. Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi started a farewell visit to North America during which he will mix
serious political talks with heavyweight tourism to Niagra Falls and Elvis
Presley's home, AFP reported.
[Reuters]
|
In a meeting with Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Koizumi said he has never taken the view that
China poses a threat to Japan, but rather that he sees the emergence of China as
an economic competitor as an opportunity.
A Japanese official quoted Koizumi as telling Harper that despite Tokyo's icy
ties with Beijing, he continues to hope for an amicable relationship. "I am a
backer of friendly Japan-China ties," he said.
Koizumi is on a four-day visit to Canada and the United States.
On Tuesday, he defended his annual visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, seen by
China and South Korea as a symbol of Japan's past militarism, and criticized
Beijing for refusing to hold official summit meetings with him.
The leaders of the two countries have only met on the sidelines of
multilateral forums.
Koizumi's annual visits to the shrine since taking office in 2001 have been
at the center of Tokyo's worsening ties with Beijing and Seoul as the Shinto
shrine honors some convicted Japanese war criminals along with the country's war
dead.
The Japanese leader has said he goes to Yasukuni not to glorify war but to
pay respects to the war dead and to vow never to stage war again.
He has yet to visit the central Tokyo shrine this year. He last went in
October 2005.
|
