4.
EC/Japan declaration.
There is an opportunity here
though it is questionable if the EC will be clever enough to exploit it.
Kakizawa (Chairman of the Diet Defence Committee) is thinking immediately in terms of parliamentary approval for the self-defence forces being used on non-combatant humanitarian and monitoring missions; for the longer-term he was talking about an Asian peace-keeping force possibly for participation in Cambodia.
both MPs were clear that much of the blame for Gulf problems resting with Kaifu's lack of political leadership (as Minister of Health and Welfare Tsushima had proposed sending Japanese doctors to the Gulf: Kaifu had vetoed this on the grounds that it might be dangerous for them).
The idea of an Asian regional grouping was in the air. One participant proposed an ACU (Asian Currency Unit). The Japanese understood Mahathir's ideas as being a defensive response to regionalism in Europe and the US. There was no interest however in any kind of exclusive block: Japan needed European and American markets too much: but if regional block was not attractive, some kind of a regional grouping, which might eventually acquire political and security functions, was.
JP1AOC/2
pp. K. Chadbourne
RF Cooper
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