NORTHEAST ASIA PEACE AND SECURITY NETWORK 
*****   SPECIAL REPORT   *****

February 17, 2000

The following is the complete official transcript of a briefing 
by senior US officials visiting Japan to members of the Japanese 
media at the US Embassy in Tokyo on February 16.  The officials 
were speaking on "background" and thus were not identified.  The 
briefing mostly focused on the upcoming Group of 8 (G8) Summit 
scheduled for July in Okinawa.

-------------------------------

Background Briefing for Japanese Media American Embassy, Tokyo

February 16, 2000

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Thank you all for being willing to come in 
this afternoon.  I'll try very hard to make our discussion 
worthwhile to you.  I think the ground rules of background will 
actually make it possible for me to range a little further than I 
could otherwise.  I hope it's still of use to all of you.

Let me first say what a pleasure it is to be back in Tokyo.  This 
is a city and a country that have extended their hospitality to 
me many, many times over the years including when I was in your 
line of work, I came here often as a journalist for Time 
magazine.  I even stayed in Okura hotel, which is where I stayed 
last night.  So I feel, in more ways than one, very much at home 
here.

Let me give you just a little bit of a background on the purpose 
of our mission.  First, I want to make sure that you're all aware 
of the delegation that has accompanied me here.  We have an 
interagency delegation.  It is at the Deputy Cabinet Minister 
level within our government.  In addition to myself, I am joined 
by Walt Slocombe who is the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.  
And General Joe Ralston who is the Vice Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, who is in his final weeks of that job.  He will 
soon be going to Europe to be the Supreme Allied Commander in 
Europe.  And Jim Steinberg who is the Deputy National Security 
Advisor to the President.

We're here in Tokyo because of the ongoing importance of 
consulting as closely as possible, as frequently as possible, at 
as high level as possible, on as wide a range as possible with 
the government of Japan.  I need hardly tell you, and we'll touch 
on some of the specifics, how many challenging trends and events 
there are around the world and here in the Asia-Pacific region.  
President Clinton and Secretary Albright, Secretary Cohen, Sandy 
Berger all feel that it's important enough to have a first hand 
impression of the Japanese government's view of the situation 
that the four of us should come here and spend a day and a half 
and I'll, in a moment, touch on some of the issues.

Just so you'll know our itinerary, we're going to be flying this 
afternoon to Beijing where we will be having a round of 
discussions with counterparts in the Chinese government.

I might add that in addition to what we're able to accomplish in 
Tokyo yesterday and today, Foreign Minister Kono will also be in 
a meeting with Secretary Albright this weekend as well as seeing 
others in the United States government.  And all of the 
discussions that we're having are with an acute awareness that 
the G-8 Summit that Japan will be hosting in Okinawa is coming up 
this summer.  We see that as a major opportunity to dramatize not 
only the important and positive agenda of the G-8 but also to 
underscore the strong and enduring relationship between the 
United States and Japan.

And there will be some other opportunities as well, I think, in 
Okinawa that we discussed here in Tokyo today.  For example the 
newly-elected President to Russia will be participating in the G-
8 meeting.  And going back seven years, I have personally worked 
very closely with a number of Japanese colleagues on coordinating 
U.S. and Japanese policy towards Russia.  And that too is an 
issue that you may want to touch upon in your questions.

Let me just run through for you the meetings that we have had.  
When we got in yesterday we had a meeting for about an hour or so 
with Foreign Minister Kono.  Prime Minister Obuchi was good 
enough to receive my colleagues and me today for a very focused 
and, from our standpoint, very positive meeting.  We also had a 
breakfast at Ambassador Foley's residence this morning with four 
leaders of the LDP, Chairman Kamei, Dr. Akada, Dr. Kamura, and 
Dr. Sakarai.  And then, at lunch at the Vice Foreign Minister's 
Residence we just had a chance to tour the horizon with the Vice 
Minister, Akawashima and several of his colleagues and we touched 
on probably a dozen different subjects in the course that lunch.  
We, of course, throughout the day and a half that we've been 
here, have spent a lot of time on the bilateral relationship.  My 
colleagues, Secretary Slocombe and General Ralston are at the 
Japanese Defense Agency right now, where they're discussing a 
range of issues that relate to the Treaty between the United 
States and Japan and implementation of various understandings and 
agreements in the past.  We have touched on the question of host 
nation support in all of our meetings and that, of course, will 
be on the agenda of the discussions underway at the Japanese 
Defense Agency right now.

On the subject of China, it is from the U.S. standpoint extremely 
important that China and Japan improve their bilateral 
relationship.  It's also extremely important that we, the United 
States, understand Japan's interests and concerns and 
perspectives.

Everybody knows [second official], I'm sure.  

And in that same spirit, we've taken advantage of the opportunity 
to make sure that our Japanese colleagues understand the way we 
see various issues related to U.S.-China relations and China's 
role in the world and region.  We can come back to that.

We had, we talked about a number of security situations in the 
region.  The Korean Peninsula figured very prominently.  U.S. and 
Japanese policy and diplomacy are very closely coordinated in 
this respect.  We did talk a certain amount about Russia.  We 
talked about Southeast Asia, specifically with regard to 
Indonesia.  And then we talked about some global issues because 
Japan as I hardly need to tell you is a nation with a global role 
and global interests.  We talked a good deal about globalization 
and the importance of the United States and Japan working 
together to make sure that the forces of globalization work in 
favor of the prosperity and the security of our people.  And that 
means dealing with, if I can put it this way, the aftermath of 
Seattle during the preparations for Okinawa.  And that's a 
subject, I'm sure, that Foreign Minister Kono is going to want to 
come back to when he visits Washington in the coming days.

Why don't I stop right there and invite you to raise any 
questions that you have, keeping in mind that we are talking on a 
background basis.

Q:  Are you worried about ongoing...  [inaudible]

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: I'm not by any stretch of the imagination 
worried, I think that the right people are talking about this 
subject.  Even as we speak, I'm sure that Secretary Slocombe and 
General Ralston are touching upon the issue of host nation 
support in their meetings with the Japan Defense Agency and did 
come up earlier.  And let me tell you in a nutshell what our view 
is on that.  One of the themes that's popped up in a number of 
conversations is how many changes and uncertainties and 
unpredictables there are in the world today, including in the 
Asian-Pacific region.  The United States-Japan relationship is 
unchanging, certain and predictable.  I think it serves not only 
the two peoples, not only Japan and the United States, it also 
serves all the people of the region.  And very much at the core 
of the U.S. Japan relationship, of course, are shared values and 
shared interests.  But also, at the core of the relationship is 
the defense treaty that binds us together.  We make different 
contributions to the treaty relationship that we have.  Among the 
contributions that Japan makes to that relationship are the base 
facilities and also host nation support.  What we hear from our 
Japanese interlocutors, including I might add, the parliamentary 
figures with whom we have met, is that there's a lot of support 
in Japan for a very simple proposition.  And that is this 
relationship, this treaty that binds us together, is in the 
interests of the Japanese people as well as the American people.  
And now it is a question of making sure that principle prevails 
in discussions on certain specific issues that will inevitability 
come up from time to time.

Q: On a current issue, we know that the U.S. government is ready 
to discuss with the North Koreans about the removal of North 
Korea from the list of states sponsoring international terrorism.  
Will North Korea have to resolve the kidnapping cases before it 
can be removed from the list?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: The discussions that have been going on 
between the United States and DPRK are as sensitive as they are 
important.  We have been very open with our Japanese governmental 
colleagues in consulting with them on these ongoing discussions.  
But I don't think it probably serves the purpose that we all want 
to see advanced for me to get much further into it than that.  I 
will say that the question of abductions, of course, came up in 
my meetings here.  My colleagues in the American government and I 
fully understand the human pain and sense of grievance as a 
result of this issue.  We have touched upon, in our discussions 
here, a number of ways to address this problem in the future in 
all of its dimensions.

Q: On Japanese Red Army cases, North Korea is protecting those 
hijackers in Korea and Congress, the Republican congressman, says 
that protection of those hijackers is an act of sponsoring 
terrorism.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: That issue per se, in those terms, did not 
figure in the discussions that I was party to yesterday and 
today.  But please do not attach any negative significance to 
that.  That doesn't mean that it's not important.  We recognize 
its importance.  I sketched out earlier for you how many issues 
we've had to cover in our discussions here that meant that there 
was not time to get into great detail.  Let me see if [second 
official] or anybody wants to add anything on this specific from 
the standpoint of the Embassy.  You're welcome to do that, 
[second official], at any point.  But the Japanese Red Army 
issue, per se, did not come up in our discussions.

SECOND OFFICIAL: My understanding is that we're going to discuss 
those issues when we discuss the matter with North Korea, both 
the issue of abduction and the issue of the Red Army.

Q: I know that you are going to be in China this afternoon, and 
you know that Japan's government and especially Prime Minister 
Obuchi has a strong intention to make China as a member of the G-
8 economic summit in Okinawa.  So, yesterday, Dr. Ambassador 
showed a very positive attitude on this issue.  I did want to 
know how the United States government thinks on this problem.  
Are you going to bring this issue in Beijing?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Well, I always read with respect and interest 
the Japanese press when I'm here.  At least the Japanese press 
that I find accessible because it's in English.  But, let me just 
tell you quite frankly, that what you're telling me was not 
reflected in any conversations held here.  No Japanese official 
has told me that there's any intention to bring China into the G-
8 as a member.  [Second official] is right here and he will 
amplify or indeed clarify on his own comments as he wishes and I 
think this might be an opportunity to do that.  Let me give you 
our own perspective on this issue.  President Clinton, as he 
looks forward to Okinawa, feels strongly that it's important for 
the G-8 as a consultative mechanism for the major industrialized 
democracies to interact as much as possible with other countries 
in the Asian region.  Particularly, of course when the meeting is 
going to be taking place in Asia.  There are after all, four 
Pacific countries in the G-8 already.  By which I mean Japan, 
Russia, Canada and the United States.  And, we will be continuing 
to do what we've been doing already, and that is to consult 
closely with our Japanese friends who are the hosts of the Summit 
and who are in turn, consulting with all the members of the G-8 
about the most appropriate way to interact with other countries 
in the region including China.  There is no formal mechanism, per 
se, for bringing new members into the G-8 at this time, or in the 
context of this year's meeting.  [Second official], would you 
like to add to that?

SECOND OFFICIAL:  I'm very indebted; I think that's correct.

Q: Can I ask on the Taiwan issue?  You see, I expect you discuss 
this matter with Chinese counterparts.  What reaction are you 
expecting from China, especially on the occasion of Taiwan's 
presidential election?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: I hope that you'll understand my not wanting 
to get too deeply into that subject because that relates to an 
issue that, of course, our Chinese hosts will want to discuss 
with us and I don't want to anticipate the discussion except to 
say that my colleagues and I will use our meetings in Beijing to 
reiterate what is well-known American position with regard to 
Taiwan.  And that is, of course, is that there is one China.  And 
second, that we hope that others will join us in doing everything 
possible to encourage a peaceful resolution of the issue and also 
it is our hope which we will certainly reflect in our 
conversations in Beijing that there will be a resumption of the 
cross-straits dialogue.  But I think that beyond that I would not 
want to say anything more.  But you can be sure that this issue 
did figure in our talks here in Tokyo, given Japan's obvious 
interest in it because of its relevance to the security of the 
region.

Q: Can I ask, can I ask about your views on the acting President 
Putin, because I am very interested in your views because you are 
a Russian expert?  Some say that he will be a kind of Russian 
Pinochet, and others say that he will be someone like a liberal 
reformer.  That means for the moment, nobody knows for sure what 
kind of president that he will be.  And of course, President 
Clinton and your Senora Albright have highly valued Dr. Putin.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Well, there is a prior question, of course.  
And that is who will be the president of Russia after the March 
26 election?  I realize that there is a good deal of conventional 
wisdom which I'm not going to dispute.  That Dr. Putin is the man 
to beat, which is to say he is very much the front runner.  But 
one of the important and positive developments in Russia over the 
last decade is that Russia has gone from being a Soviet communist 
dictatorship to being a country which operates under a 
constitution and through democratic elections.  And it's going to 
have a democratic election on March 26 and Dr. Putin, whom I have 
seen something of recently, is one of the first to say that 
nobody should prejudge a decision that only the Russian people 
will make.  By the way, I'm not sure that I want to get into a 
comparative history of Russia and Chile, but who ever is going to 
be the next president of Russia is going to come to executive 
power there through a democratic election and that's not what 
happened in Chile, at least in the period that you're referring 
to.

Now, I would be glad to share with you a thought or two about the 
acting President of Russia because I have had a chance to see a 
bit of him.  President Clinton and Secretary Albright have dealt 
with him as well.  President Clinton saw him, if I'm not 
mistaken, twice last year.  Once was in Auckland, and once was in 
Oslo.  Secretary Albright had three hours with him, I'll say ten 
days ago, two weeks ago.  Dr. Putin wants to see Russia strong 
again.  He wants to see Russia back on its feet, playing a role 
in the world commensurate with its vast size, its huge natural 
resources, its immense human talents.  So do we.  I think it's in 
all our interests that Russia be strong.  As long as, and this is 
the key point, as long as Russia defines strength in a way that 
is appropriate to the 21st Century.  As opposed to the way in 
which Russia, as part of the Soviet Union defined strength in the 
20th Century, or most of the 20th Century, not to mention in the 
19th and 18th Centuries.  Which is to say if Russia defines 
strength to mean that it's a strong democracy, that it has a 
strong economy plugged into the global economy, that it plays an 
active and contributing role to major international organizations 
like the United Nations Security Council, like the G-8, I think 
that is to the benefit of all of us.  It's an open question.  
Russia is undergoing a complex, high-stakes, transition or 
transformation that's going to continue for many, many years.  My 
own guess is it's going to be a generation or more before we know 
the answers to the questions that are implicit in the question 
that you raised.  There's no question that Japan is going to play 
an important part in establishing the international setting or 
context in which Russia answers these questions.  I know that 
Foreign Minister Ivanov was just here in Tokyo and I had a chance 
to hear from your Foreign Minister and from his colleagues at the 
Gaimusho their assessment of Dr. Ivanov's visit here and I would 
say that it was generally quite a positive assessment.  I know 
that there are outstanding issues between Japan and Russia.  I've 
been working personally on those issues since 1993 when the 
United States used its own good offices with Russia before 
President Yeltsin came to Japan in October of 1993 to urge Russia 
to reach an accommodation with Japan on the issue of the Northern 
Territories.  But I can tell you that my sense is that the 
Japanese leadership as it prepares for the Okinawa Summit sees 
one of the opportunities in Okinawa to put the international 
spotlight on a newly elected Russian president who will be 
participating as a full member of the G-8.  That's a very 
positive development from Russia's standpoint.  I think it's 
something that would not have been possible, had it not been for 
the role of the United States and Japan.  The process of bringing 
Russia into the G-8 really began in 1993.  That was the first 
time I came to Tokyo twice in 1993 in preparation for the Tokyo 
Summit of the G-8, and I remember very well how the government 
worked in this direction; so the bottom line, is that this is a 
work in progress.  It is more likely to be successful if the 
United States and Japan continue to treat it collaboratively.

Q: Let me ask your view of Indonesia and how do you evaluate the 
Indonesian new President Wahid, and he has still a lot of 
problems, especially the reformation of the military.  What do 
you think about that?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Well let me confirm what you may assume.  I 
mentioned Southeast Asia as one of the regions that we touched 
upon in a number of our conversations here in Tokyo.  Indonesia 
in particular, we talked about.  I don't think it's probably 
helpful for me to offer a detailed commentary except to say that 
in our view in the United States, and it's clearly shared here in 
Japan, an important operating principle or guideline for a 
successful state in the 21st Century is civilian control of the 
military.  Along with rule of law and democracy itself that's 
kind of a bedrock of principle.  And it will be, there may, from 
time to time, appropriate ways for the United States and Japan 
and others in the international community to help Indonesia in 
that aspect of its transition as well as others.  But this is 
basically a set of Indonesian problems for Indonesia to come up 
with its own solutions to.  But all in all, if you look back over 
the last several years and some of the difficulties, not to 
mentions crises, that Indonesia has been through I think there is 
much to congratulate, not only the Indonesian leadership for but 
the Indonesian people who seem determined to make the transition 
and to remain a cohesive and strong country.  And very much a 
part of this region, working in close partnership with Japan.

Q: President Clinton is supposed to go visit India next month 
which is after President Carter, I think, and how would you 
foresee the possible result of the talks between U.S. and Indian 
leadership?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: This too is a subject that came up in a number 
of different settings here in Tokyo for a variety of reasons.  
Japan has been conducting, as you know, its' own so-called Track 
Two dialogue with India.  I had a chance earlier to day to meet 
with an old friend of mine, Dashiyama, who briefed me a little 
bit about those Track Two exchanges in Delhi.  But it came up in 
the governmental channel as well.  President Clinton feels that 
for 50 years the U.S. and India continually missed an opportunity 
to establish a foundation for their bilateral relationship that 
recognized the common values and institutions that ought to bring 
the United States and India together.  Democracy, of course, 
being first and foremost.  There's no great mystery about why 
during that period the United States and India were what was 
sometimes being called estranged democracies and that was because 
of the cold war.  The cold war is over.  President Clinton is the 
first American president to have been elected since the end of 
the cold war.  Among the opportunities, and indeed obligations 
that he felt that was one to turn over a new leaf in relations 
with India.  And, indeed that is part of what he will try to do 
when he goes to India shortly.  But as all of you know very well, 
in May of 1998, India made a decision which we, the United States 
and our Japanese colleagues couldn't agree more, feel was a 
profound mistake, and quite frankly, a dangerous mistake.  And 
that was to test a nuclear weapon, inducing Pakistan to follow 
suit a couple of weeks later.  In the nearly two years that have 
ensued since those tests, the United States has been conducting 
intensive dialogue with India.  To see if there are things that 
India might do which would make it more part of the solution and 
less part of the problem of non-proliferation.  This is a 
diplomatic effort between the United States and India that has 
had a great deal of support from the government of Japan.  As you 
probably know, Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh was here in Tokyo 
recently.  I've had consultations with my Japanese counterparts 
both in Washington and here in Tokyo about that.

We've talked a lot about this new century which we've now finally 
begun, thank goodness.  And one of the key features as we move 
from the 20th Century to the 21st century was a growing consensus 
that states should rely less on brute force in general and less 
on nuclear force to ensure their security and establish their 
status and prestige.  Japan is a show case example of a major 
power, an immensely constructive and successful modern country 
which has been able to achieve that status without having to 
resort to a nuclear arsenal.  Germany being a particularly 
prominent one.  There are also countries that had nuclear weapons 
and gave them up.  Countries like Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus, 
South Africa.  There are countries that could have developed 
nuclear weapons, came fairly close to developing nuclear weapons 
but then stepped back and decided not to like Brazil and 
Argentina.  Part of our reason for feeling that India made a 
mistake in May 1998 is that by testing nuclear weapons and 
declaring itself to be a nuclear weapons state outside the NPT, 
India was swimming against the tide of history.  And making more 
complicated the task that unites so many of us including the 
United States and Japan on behalf of nuclear non-proliferation.  
So part of President Clinton's challenge when he goes to India 
will be to make sure both in his diplomatic contacts there and 
also in what he says publicly that while we are prepared to open 
a new chapter in U.S.-Indian relations, based on where we have 
common values, common interests and common institutions, we also 
owe it to the Indians and to good friends and close allies, like 
Japan, which have made the wise decision of not having nuclear 
weapons to keep the non-proliferation subject very much on the 
agenda of U.S.-Indian relations.  And as long as India persists 
in being a self-declared nuclear weapons state outside the NPT, 
there are going to be certain limitations on the relationships 
that a number of countries including the United States and Japan 
are going to be able to have with India.

So, that's a considerable challenge indeed, but the President has 
talked about it quite candidly with Prime Minister Vajpayee in 
the past and I think that both leaders are determined that this 
will be a successful visit by President Clinton, first since 
Jimmy Carter was there, as you say.  But at the same time it will 
deal with whole range of issues, including some on which there 
are quite profound differences between the United States and 
India.

And I will tell you that having been in Tokyo for more than 24 
hours, I am once again deeply gratified by the degree of support 
and agreement that I heard from our Japanese counterparts as they 
explained to us Japan's policy with regard to South Asia.

Q: Unfortunately, CTBT was defeated in the Senate last year, and 
in the State of the Union message President Clinton expressed his 
hope that CTBT would be confirmed, passed, eventually.  Does he 
have any concrete plan or idea to go ahead with CTBT right now or 
next year?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Yes.  He has quite specific plans and he and 
Secretary Albright have asked the former Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili, who is I think quite 
well known here to help, as an advisor to work with Congress to 
develop a consensus of support for the CTBT that will allow this 
treaty to go forward.  I don't want to give you a time frame 
because that will depend on a number of factors that are not 
entirely clear at this point.  But the bottom line is that far 
from giving up on CTBT, not only is this administration 
determined to make sure that the CTBT prevails, but I think that 
there is actually a promising degree of awareness in the United 
States Congress on both sides of the aisle, that is among 
Republicans and Democrats, on how important it is to not slip 
backwards in this regard.  And the views of other countries 
including vital allies of the United States, like Japan, have a 
big impact back in Washington.  Your leadership has made its own 
views quite clear.  And I think will have opportunities to do so 
in the future.

I think that we have time for only one or two more questions.  

Q: I would like to go back to the issue, the Summit and China.  
Do you think, is there a possibility for China to join the Summit 
in the near future?  If so, do you think, is there some condition 
for the G-8 or for China?

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Well, I've already addressed the issue of the 
calendar year 2000 and the Okinawa Summit.  The issue doesn't 
really arise this year.  Looking to the future, let's see.  If 
over time, there will be a consensus within the G-8 and it is a 
consultative mechanism that operates by consensus for inclusion 
of China among the world's major industrialized democracies.

Q: Among the Japanese, there is an idea to invite China as an 
observer, just an observer.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: I am sure that Ambassador Foley and our 
various sherpas, at least one of whom is traveling with me on 
this trip, will be talking to the Japanese host about a number of 
modalities and ideas.  I don't want to comment on any of them.  I 
think it would be premature.

Q: The President has indicated that he would like to see the 
Futenma relocation issue be resolved before he can go to Okinawa 
for the G-8 Summit.  Do you think the issue was mostly resolved 
with the acceptance of Nago city or the issue remains to be 
resolved before he can go to Okinawa.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: Answering that question, I wouldn't suggest 
any conditions whatsoever on the President's attendance of the 
Summit.  I don't even know if you meant to imply that.

SECOND OFFICIAL: No, I think he was misinterpreted in his 
comment.  He was asked, would he like to see the issue resolved?  
And he said, "yes."  But he did not say that he would not attend 
or imply that he wouldn't attend the G-8 Summit unless the issue 
is resolved.

AMERICAN OFFICIAL: There were a number of bilateral issues 
relating to strengthening our defense ties that we would like to 
see resolved.  I mentioned the issue of Host Nation Support.  
There is also the Atsugi incinerator which is really, extremely 
important to us because the health of American personnel at that 
base, not to mention, or actually to mention, the health of 
Japanese employees on the base as well is at risk here.  Nobody 
disputes that there is real health hazard as resulting from these 
emissions of dioxin.  And we hope that we will see a very prompt 
resolution of that and our preference would be to have the 
facility close down until an adequate solution can be found.  And 
I can promise you that Under Secretary Slocombe and General 
Ralston have raised that issue in very forthright terms with 
their counterparts in the Japanese Defense Agency.  And I touched 
upon it in my meeting with the Prime Minister as well as in my 
meeting with Foreign Minister.  As you can tell, it takes me a 
little longer to move anywhere so I have to get going.  This is 
the price I pay for trying to jog round the Imperial Palace this 
morning.

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(end transcript)

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