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Japanese FM leaves for Washington
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Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka left Japan on Saturday for Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Colin Powell today over a wide range of bilateral, regional and global issues.
In her talks with Powell at the US State Department today, Tanaka is expected to express Japan's assertions on issues involving US military bases in Okinawa and to urge the US to return to the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty aimed at curbing global warming which US President George W Bush has rejected as “fatally flawed”, Japanese government officials said.
Tanaka and Powell will also discuss bilateral economic and trade relations and the Korean Peninsula situation, as well as the June 30 summit between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Bush at Camp David, Maryland, the officials said.
On Okinawa issues, Tanaka, who became Japan's foreign minister on April 26, will likely propose an already-floated plan in which the US military would conduct drills on a rotating basis among Okinawa, Guam, the Philippines and other nearby locations to reduce the burden on Okinawa residents.
Tanaka is also expected to take up Okinawa's demands for a 15-year limit on the US military's use of a civilian airport to be built in northern Okinawa to cover the heliport functions of the US Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in central Okinawa, which is to be returned to Japan.
Regarding the Kyoto Protocol, the Japanese foreign minister is expected to press Washington to reconsider its decision to ditch the treaty, although Bush has repeatedly said the US will withdraw from the treaty, saying it would hurt its economy, the officials said.
Tanaka will leave the US capital shortly after noon today and return to Japan tomorrow.
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