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Obama, Japan¡¦s Abe to
reinforce crucial alliance
OLD FRIENDS: While the Japanese leader wants
even stronger ties with the US amid a territorial row with China, the US
president is likely to tread cautiously
AP and AFP, WASHINGTON and BEIJING
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe, second right, is greeted by US Chief of Protocol Capricia Marshall, left,
as he arrives at Andrews Air Force base near Washington on Thursday.
Photo: Reuters
US President Barack Obama was to welcome
new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House yesterday to reinforce
a core US alliance at a time of high tension stoked by a Japan-China territorial
dispute and a North Korean nuclear test.
Abe is a nationalist and a keen advocate of stronger relations with Washington
that have assumed more importance for Tokyo as it has locked horns in recent
months with emerging power China over the control of islands in the
resource-rich seas between them.
Abe, who arrived on Thursday afternoon and is to leave early today, has been
anxious for the Oval Office meeting since he returned to power after a
convincing election victory in December for his second stint as prime minister
since he resigned for health reasons in 2007 after serving for one year.
On the security issues roiling northeast Asia, the US and Japan are to show
solidarity in the face of North Korea¡¦s recent long-range rocket launches and
last week¡¦s nuclear test.
More delicate will be how Obama and Abe address Japan¡¦s dispute with China over
the Diaoyutai Islands (³¨³½¥x), claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan, but
administered by the latter, where they are known as the Senkakus. China calls
them the Diaoyu Islands (³¨³½À¬). China has stepped up patrols into what Japan
considers its territorial waters, heightening concern that the dispute could
spark a conflict between the world¡¦s second and third-largest economies.
Abe is to seek a reaffirmation of US treaty obligations to help Japan in the
event of conflict ¡X spelled out last month by then-US secretary of state Hillary
Rodham Clinton, who said the US opposes any unilateral actions seeking to
undermine Japan¡¦s administration of the islands.
Obama will likely give that assurance, but tread cautiously. The US wants to
avoid a conflict in the region and is wary of alienating Beijing, whose support
is needed to pressure North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.
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