JAKARTA, Jan 12: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi arrived in Indonesia on Saturday on the latest leg of a trip through Southeast Asia to drum up support for his regional free-trade vision.
Koizumi will hold talks with President Megawati Sukarnoputri later on Saturday that officials have said were also likely to focus on aid for Indonesia, along with a debt rescheduling that has been taking place under the Paris Club of official creditors.
Japan is Indonesia’s biggest donor country and a vital investor. It has staunchly backed the Southeast Asian giant, which has struggled to regain its footing after plunging into chaos during the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.
Officials said it was also likely the issue of terrorism would be discussed.
Indonesia has come under the spotlight because of fears the al Qaeda network of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden would exploit the country’s poverty and weak law enforcement to link up with local radical Muslim groups, which form a small minority in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Officials have not found any evidence of such ties.
During his regional trip, Koizumi has won support from Thailand and the Philippines for a proposal to create an economic cooperative “community” among the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Japan, China and South Korea.
But Malaysia has stopped short of giving its backing to the proposal, which may ultimately include Australia and New Zealand.
Koizumi’s vision centres on a comprehensive economic cooperation framework among Japan and ASEAN, centring on free-trade agreements (FTAs), seen as Tokyo’s bid not to lag behind China’s burgeoning influence in the region.
Koizumi has already clinched an FTA with Singapore, to be signed on Sunday and the first such bilateral pact for Tokyo. The island state will be the last leg of Koizumi’s five-nation trip, where he will also outline Japan’s new Southeast Asia policy.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
China’s regional influence is expected to strengthen now that it has joined the World Trade Organisation and its economy continues to boom while others in the region suffer.
China agreed with ASEAN to establish a free-trade area within 10 years at an ASEAN+3 (Japan, South Korea and China) summit last November, rattling Japan, which saw China stealing the initiative in a region it long regarded as its backyard.
Unlike China, Japan has not set a timeframe for concluding the free-trade zone with ASEAN.—Reuters