Japan vows to play 'active role' in peace process

In his first meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today pledged to provide €78.5m in economic aid to Palestine and vowed that Japan would play an “active role” in the Middle East peace process.

Koizumi also said Japan would be happy to host a summit between Abbas and his Israeli counterpart, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He said Sharon is expected to visit Japan soon, and said he would sound him out on the summit proposal.

Koizumi said it was impossible to say at this point when such a summit might take place, however.

“There is a limit to our capabilities,” he said. “But we shall play an active role.”

Abbas arrived in Japan yesterday for a three-day visit for meetings with Japanese leaders, who are pushing to expand Japan’s role in the Middle East.

In a joint news conference after meeting Koizumi, Abbas said he welcomed the Japanese aid, which Koizumi said was for “the immediate future.”

Abbas said he hoped Tokyo would also use its political clout to help the peace process move forward.

“Japan has balanced relations in the region,” he said. “Japan has been providing very important assistance to Palestine, and we hope Japan will also exert its political influence as well.”

Neither leader mentioned specific ways in which Japan could expand its role.

But when Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura visited the Middle East for talks with the Israelis and the Palestinians in January, he floated the idea of the three-way summit among Koizumi, Abbas and Sharon.

The possibility of that happening this month vanished when Israeli officials in April said Sharon would remain in Israel to observe the nation’s independence day during Abbas’ visit to Japan, so the leaders would have to meet Koizumi separately.

Abbas, who last visited Tokyo in 1981, will visit Washington next week for talks with US President George W Bush.

Koizumi said the two leaders agreed to host ministerial-level talks in Tokyo before the end of the year. He said Abbas invited him to visit Palestine, and said he would like to do so “at the soonest possibility.”