ASIA/PACIFIC SECURITY ISSUES
BULL POINTS
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Current Japanese attitude towards proposals for a multilateral security framework in the Asia/Pacific region?
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Australian proposals last year for a "Conference on Security and Cooperation in Asia"-type forum have effectively been withdrawn. Recognise that Japan had doubts about such a structure. Importance of maintaining US security presence in the region, probable Chinese hostility to discussing issues which they consider internal (eg China/Taiwan), and other Asian countries' doubts about Japan raising its security profile in the region as a result of US withdrawal all
contributed to this.
- But interested by Mr Nakayama's proposal of a regional dialogue on security policy issues with ASEAN at the ASEAN PMC in July 1991. Does this represent an evolution of Japanese thinking?
- What difference do dissolution of Soviet Union and President Bush's nuclear arms proposals make to consideration of this question? Russia is likely to remain dominant, so similar reservations to the idea of a multilateral framework are likely to
apply. But clearly much will depend on the nature of any US
disengagement.
We are observers, not actors in this dialogue. But we doubt
whether Asia/Pacific security problems are susceptible to multilateral treatment. Different problems require different approaches (eg confidence-building on the Korean peninsula, UN settlement in Cambodia). We want Japan to play an international political role in keeping with its economic strength, but respect Japan's hesitation about raising its security profile in ways which
disturb its neighbours.
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