Hatoyama to call on APEC in Singapore to work on climate change+

TOKYO, Nov. 12 Kyodo -
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday that he wants to call on other
members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to work to make the
international climate change conference in Copenhagen next month a success.

Hatoyama will attend a two-day summit of the APEC forum in Singapore from
Saturday. Arrangements are currently being made for some bilateral talks on the
fringes of the 21-member regional forum, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hirofumi Hirano.
It is highly likely that Hatoyama will hold a meeting with Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev, in which a decades-old sovereignty row over four Russian-held
islands off Hokkaido will likely top the agenda.
''I would like to advance discussions on the issue a step further,'' the prime
minister told reporters on Wednesday.
In an interview with Singaporean media in Tokyo on Thursday, Hatoyama said APEC
members bear the responsibility of working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
noting that Japan is ready to extend technical and financial assistance to
developing countries through his ''Hatoyama Initiative.''
''We must first lead (the Copenhagen conference) to success and I want to call
on them for their cooperation to that end,'' Hatoyama was quoted by a Japanese
official as saying.
Citing the need to create a ''low-carbon'' society and take other eco-friendly
approaches, Hatoyama said, ''I want to call on APEC members to make efforts
together toward solving the big issue.''
At the December conference, the world will try to clinch a deal on a successor
treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. In a show of Tokyo's
resolve, Hatoyama has pledged to cut Japan's carbon dioxide and other
greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 if large
economies such as China join a post-Kyoto framework.
Hatoyama is scheduled to leave Haneda airport shortly after meeting with U.S.
President Barack Obama in Tokyo on Friday evening.
Obama is set to visit Japan for two days from Friday and leave for Singapore on
Saturday afternoon, also to attend the APEC summit.
Obama's trip to Japan has been pushed back one day from Thursday so he can
attend a memorial service to honor the victims of last week's shooting rampage
at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas.
It is rare for the leader of a country hosting a summit meeting to leave a
visiting counterpart behind.
The Japanese prime minister has to leave for Singapore sooner because
arrangements have already been made in the Southeast Asian country for
Saturday, a Japanese government source said.
During the two-day APEC summit, the participants are expected to discuss growth
strategies for the global economy, which has yet to see a full recovery, and
ideas for forming a regional forum, including the possibility of creating an
''East Asian community'' as advocated by Hatoyama, according to Japanese
government officials.
They are also likely to hold discussions toward the early conclusion of the
stalled Doha Round of trade liberalization talks under the World Trade
Organization, they said.
Hatoyama is scheduled to deliver a speech Sunday on Japan's foreign policy
toward Asia.
==Kyodo
2009-11-12 22:46:30