Japan-Saudi ties should move beyond oil - Japan PM
RIYADH, Apr 28 (Reuters) Japan and Saudi Arabia need to move beyond oil and build a broad economic partnership that will benefit both their nations and the West Asia as a whole, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said today.
He is in Saudi Arabia on the first stop of a five-nation West Asia trip aimed at boosting Japan's profile in the region and ensuring a stable energy supply from an area on which it relies for nearly all its crude oil.
The day before his today arrival from the United States, where he met US President George W Bush, Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said it foiled an al Qaeda-linked plot to attack oil facilities, military bases and public figures, arresting 172 people.
Abe told a seminar of Saudi and Japanese business leaders that peace is needed in the region and ties between their two nations should be stronger.
''I want to build a new relationship for Japan in the Middle East, and for that a stronger relationship with Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Gulf, is essential,'' he said.
The West Asia provides some 90 perc ent of Japan's crude oil, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for nearly 30 per cent, and Japan has recently said it is concerned about securing a stable supply of oil in the face of growing competition from China and India.
But Abe said that economic ties had to broaden into a ''multi-layered relationship'' and pledged the use of Japan's experience and knowledge to do so.
''We'll become strategic partners. We'll keep the strong connection of oil but broaden and progress further,'' he added.
SPECIAL ROLE Japan has long felt it had a special role to play in the West Asia because it lacks much of the political baggage of the United States, allowing for warmer ties with Arab nations and enabling it to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians in the search for peace.
But economic investment in nations like Saudi Arabia has lagged until recent years, hampered by issues such as a lack of investment infrastructure.
Abe noted the diversity of the economic mission accompanying him, which is led by Fujio Mitarai, the head of the Keidanren business lobby, and includes some 170 leaders from a broad range of firms, not only the oil industry.
''I believe this unusual gathering shows the intense business interest in your nation,'' he said.
Trade officials said earlier this week that Japan aims to conclude a free trade agreement with six Middle Eastern oil producing nations, including Saudi Arabia, by 2008. Abe is set to meet with Saudi Arabian leaders including King Abdullah, and Japanese officials said talks could include a proposal for Japan to buy Saudi crude for its oil reserves.
While Japan was long viewed well in the West Asia, analysts say its push for a more assertive profile now is also based on improving an image tarnished by Tokyo's dispatch of troops to Iraq on a reconstruction mission in support of the United States.
Japan withdrew its roughly 600 ground troops from Iraq last year after a non-combat mission lasting more than two years, but some 200 air force personnel have remained in Kuwait, from where they airlift supplies to the US military in Iraq.
Abe is due to visit an air base in Kuwait to meet the troops. He will also stop in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt for talks with leaders and local officials before departing for Japan on May 2.
REUTERS
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