Posted on 03/24/2005 11:28:32 PM PST by Righty_McRight
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan, on the eve of a visit by French President Jacques Chirac, said the lifting of the EU arms embargo on China being pushed by France would be a "big problem" for Asian stability.
"Considering stability in Asia, the United States and Japan share the awareness that resuming arms exports would be a big problem," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, the Japanese government spokesman, told reporters.
Hosoda said the issue of the arms embargo would likely be on the agenda when Chirac meets Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), on a visit to Tokyo last week, agreed with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura that the two allies should cooperate to oppose EU moves to lift the embargo.
Chirac said Wednesday he still expected an agreement to lift the ban by the end of June, despite signs the 25-member EU bloc could delay its decision after China gave its army legal power to invade Taiwan if the island secedes.
US lawmakers have threatened to levy punitive trade sanctions on European companies if the EU lifts the embargo, which was imposed after China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1989.
The United States has some 40,500 troops in Japan, most of them on Okinawa near Taiwan.
Hosoda said another issue that would be raised in talks with Chirac would be Europe's push to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor in France despite a rival bid for the project by Tokyo.
Chirac, accompanied by his wife Bernadette and a delegation of French business leaders, will arrive in the western city of Osaka on Saturday and then head by train to Nagoya to see the World Exposition.
From there he will go to Tokyo Sunday to meet Koizumi and on Monday he will lunch with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
I think the Japanese are about to learn the French way of peace:
first sell your enemy guns...then surrender whrn he attacks you with them.
The American Revolution was but a convenient way to take a swipe at Great Britain.
During the early war against the Barbary Coast pirates, France acted against us.
In the Civil War, France sought to tear the Union apart.
Throughout our history, France has acted as the easily offended and crazy aunt in the attic of the family of civilized nations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.