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| Discordant note: Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (left) chats with Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong before the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting in Phnom Penh on July 12. REUTERS / KYODO |
Wednesday, Sep. 5, 2012
Kyodo
Japan has told Cambodia, which holds the rotating ASEAN chairmanship this year, that
it is dissatisfied with the chairman's statements after two meetings of
the bloc's foreign ministers in July, according to diplomatic sources.
Foreign
Minister Koichiro Genba, in a letter to his Cambodian counterpart, Hor
Namhong, dated July 24, voiced regret that the issue of the abductions
of Japanese nationals by North Korea was not included in the statement,
which was issued after the foreign ministers' meeting of the ASEAN
Regional Forum in Phnom Penh on July 12, the sources said.
Genba
also took issue with Hor Namhong over the chairman's statement issued
following the foreign ministers' meeting of East Asia Summit member
countries, held in the Cambodian capital on the same day, saying that territorial disputes in the South China Sea with China and its neighbors were not properly conveyed.
The sources said Hor Namhong
responded to Genba's letter, noting that such statements are not meant
to be a verbatim record but rather a summary of the overall views of a
meeting.
"No country, except, Japan . . .
had voiced disagreement with the chairman's statements," Hor Namhong
was quoted as saying in his letter to Genba on July 27.
With Russia, South Korea and
China having gone on the diplomatic offensive over territorial disputes
with Japan, the tone of Hor Namhong's letter to Genba suggests a decline
in Southeast Asia of Japan's diplomatic clout.
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