ID :
202376
Fri, 08/19/2011 - 16:44
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Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/202376
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Japan, U.S. to forgo Kan-Obama talks next month
TOKYO, Aug. 19 Kyodo - Japan and the United States have given up organizing talks between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and President Barack Obama in early September, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said Friday.
Edano told a news conference that the decision to skip Kan's visit to the United States is due to ''Japan's current political situation,'' most likely a reference to Kan's looming resignation. Kan has said he is ready to quit soon after two key bills are passed in parliament, likely later this month.
According to Japan's top government spokesman, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto recently conveyed Japan's decision to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, and the United States has accepted it.
On the premise that a new leader from Japan will emerge soon, the Japanese and U.S. governments are now arranging talks between Kan's successor and Obama in late September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York, government sources said.
Since the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in 2009, there have been no summit talks at the White House between the Japanese leader and the U.S. president. The last summit meeting at the While House was held February 2009 between Obama and Prime Minister Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party, now the major opposition.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said it will likely take longer for the United States to extend a formal invitation to the Japanese leader for a U.S. visit, alluding to Obama's busy schedule around the time of the U.N. meeting.
Obama invited Kan to visit the United States in early September when they met during the Group of Eight summit in France in May.
Kan's trip to the United States was initially planned for the first half of 2011, but postponed due to a stalemate over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, and the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Obama first invited the Japanese premier during their talks in Yokohama in November.
Edano told a news conference that the decision to skip Kan's visit to the United States is due to ''Japan's current political situation,'' most likely a reference to Kan's looming resignation. Kan has said he is ready to quit soon after two key bills are passed in parliament, likely later this month.
According to Japan's top government spokesman, Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto recently conveyed Japan's decision to U.S. Ambassador to Japan John Roos, and the United States has accepted it.
On the premise that a new leader from Japan will emerge soon, the Japanese and U.S. governments are now arranging talks between Kan's successor and Obama in late September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly session in New York, government sources said.
Since the Democratic Party of Japan swept to power in 2009, there have been no summit talks at the White House between the Japanese leader and the U.S. president. The last summit meeting at the While House was held February 2009 between Obama and Prime Minister Taro Aso of the Liberal Democratic Party, now the major opposition.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said it will likely take longer for the United States to extend a formal invitation to the Japanese leader for a U.S. visit, alluding to Obama's busy schedule around the time of the U.N. meeting.
Obama invited Kan to visit the United States in early September when they met during the Group of Eight summit in France in May.
Kan's trip to the United States was initially planned for the first half of 2011, but postponed due to a stalemate over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station within Okinawa Prefecture, and the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Obama first invited the Japanese premier during their talks in Yokohama in November.
