Japan Times : Negroponte gets pledge

Negroponte gets pledge

Kyodo News | August 4, 2007

Japan assured visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Friday that its policy on extending oil-refueling support for antiterrorism operations in the Indian Ocean remains unchanged despite the ruling camp's House of Councilors election defeat, while the senior U.S. diplomat said failure to extend the mission would be "harmful to international interests."

Negroponte, who is in Tokyo on his way back from a regional meeting in Manila, reiterated Washington's backing for Japan's efforts to press North Korea to resolve Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese nationals, but also said the best way to settle the issue is by Japan and North Korea holding direct talks.

His visit comes amid Washington's fears that a special law enabling Japanese forces' activities in the Indian Ocean will not be extended beyond the Nov. 1 expiration after the opposition camp won a majority in the Upper House in the July 29 election.

Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan, the main opposition force, which seized the majority in the poll, has said his party will vote against extending the law.

"In our view, it would be harmful to international interests as a whole if (the military's operations) were to be interrupted, so we hope that it would be possible for them to continue, which as I understand it means that we hope that the law will be extended," Negroponte said in a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo after holding talks with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki and other senior Japanese government officials.

Negroponte said U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer and other embassy officials plan to hold talks with members of the opposition parties.

Schieffer, speaking at the same press conference, said he will hold talks with Ozawa next week.

Shiozaki, who also serves as the top government spokesman, said at a press briefing he assured Negroponte that Japan's policy remains unchanged.