Bush, Fukuda lay out G-8 goals
TOYAKO, Japan (AP) - July 6, 2008 Bush touches down in Japan on Sunday, his 62nd birthday, and
flies aboard the Marine One presidential helicopter to the northern
Japanese island of Hokkaido for his eighth and final Group of Eight
summit. His first meeting is with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo
Fukuda.
The Japanese government is a key player in the six-party
negotiations that led to North Korea's recent declaration about its
nuclear activities. Still, Japanese citizens are upset about the
U.S. move to remove Pyongyang from the State Department's terror
blacklist in exchange for North Korea's decision to admit to some
of its weapons work.
Japan has long pushed for the resolution of North Korea's
kidnappings of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s as a
condition for sending aid and improving relations with the
impoverished, reclusive communist nation. The abductees were
apparently used to train North Korean agents in Japanese language
and customs.
Knowing that the U.S. action would put a wrinkle in
U.S.-Japanese relations, Bush called Fukuda just before the U.S.,
on June 26, announced its plan to ease sanctions against North
Korea and take the country he once labeled as part of his "axis of
evil" off the terrorism list. Bush told Fukuda the U.S. would
continue to push North Korea to resolve the kidnapping issue.
"The Japanese public has very strong feelings about getting
positive progress" on the abductee issue, Dennis Wilder, the
National Security Council's senior director for Asian Affairs, told
reporters traveling with Bush aboard Air Force One. "The president
has said we're not going to forget that issue ... I think the
Japanese prime minister will, of course, want to hear the president
repeat those assurances."
Before leaders began arriving for the summit, more than 1,000
people marched in northern Japan on Saturday to protest the event.
Police arrested four protesters after a brief scuffle.
Demonstrators at a park in central Sapporo demanded that the summit
nations take urgent measures to stop global warming, grant
indigenous people greater rights, combat world poverty and battle
discrimination.
Fukuda has made climate change the centerpiece of the meetings
involving leaders from the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France,
Italy, Russia and Canada. The Japanese prime minister, who suffers
from low approval ratings, would like to emerge with an agreement
on 50 percent overall reductions in greenhouse gases by 2050.
On the sidelines of the G-8 summit, there are other meetings
involving the world's biggest polluters. Bush, who pushed for these
meetings, says any international climate change deal will be
worthless unless it includes commitments from fast-growing
economies like China and India. He says these countries must be
held to the same greenhouse gas emission-reduction standards as
older, developed economies.
This is Bush's fourth visit to Japan. In his meeting with
Fukuda, Bush also will discuss how U.S. troops are being moved
within Japan and out of the country. The Japanese are helping move
8,000 Marines, and their dependents, from Japan to Guam. And the
U.S. military is realigning its base structure in Japan to move
troops out of urban areas. About 50,000 U.S. troops are based in
Japan under a security pact between the two countries. Many
Japanese complain of crime, pollution and noise associated with the
American bases.
They also will discuss U.S. and Japanese aid to battle poverty
and disease and improve health in Africa; and Japan's support of
cargo flights between Kuwait and Iraq, reconstruction assistance in
Iraq and its refueling operation in support of troops in
Afghanistan.
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On the Net:
Group of Eight summit: http://www.g8summit.go.jp/eng/
