RIYADH, 15 January — Saudi Arabia has welcomed the initiative of the Japanese Foreign Minister Kono Yohei to set up a committee of scholars from Muslim countries and Japan to improve the understanding of Islam in the South Asian country. The move is expected to influence Japanese foreign policy in the coming decades.
The Japanese foreign minister arrived in Riyadh on Saturday on the last leg of a tour of Gulf Arab countries aimed at boosting economic cooperation. Kono has already visited Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
"I have a cooperation plan with the Gulf states to develop hydraulic resources due to the region's needs for drinking water," Kono said in a statement distributed by the Saudi Embassy in Riyadh ahead of his visit.
"This plan has already been marked by a ground-breaking hydraulic project in Saudi Arabia, an experience that Japan wants to expand to the five other Gulf states," he said.
Referring to Kono's wide-ranging talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard on Saturday, Yasuhisa Kawamura, spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, said here yesterday that King Fahd had encouraged Kono to work on the proposal "to ensure a better understanding of Islam in Japan".
Kono concluded his two-day trip to the Kingdom yesterday after talks with Riyadh Governor Prince Salman and Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.
Kono, who expressed his wish to reinforce the political, economic and cultural ties between Saudi Arabia and Japan left Riyadh for Stockholm. He is also scheduled to visit Russia during the trip.
On Kono's talks with Prince Saud yesterday, Junya Matsuura, first secretary at the Japanese Embassy, said the talks covered a range of regional and bilateral issues. They discussed the Middle East peace process, Saudi-Japanese cooperation in water management, environmental protection and the crisis in Indonesia.
Referring to the Japanese initiative to promote the understanding of Islam, Kono said in his policy statement that "if we look deeper into our relations with the Gulf countries, the question will boil down to Japan's relations with Islam. I have always held the view that it is important for conducting Japan's foreign policy to deepen our understanding of Islam", which has more than one billion followers around the world.
Tokyo wants to keep a distance from "western prejudices" on Islam and has set up a committee for Islamic studies within the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kono told a function in the Qatari capital of Doha at the start of his Gulf tour last week.
"The United Nations has declared the current year as the year of dialogue between civilizations and I have been keen on undertaking this tour this year in order to work toward a more consolidated framework of relations with the Gulf countries," he said. "We look forward to exchange of visits among the intelligentsia, academics and specialists."
Spokesman Kawamura said that the talks between King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah and the Japanese minister focused mainly on bilateral relations including cultural ties and energy issues. Kono called for establishing multi-layered relations between the two countries. Friendly matches between soccer clubs were proposed to enhance cultural exchange.
Kono's visit to Riyadh is the first by a high-ranking Japanese official since the Kingdom refused to renew a 40-year-old Japanese oil concession after Tokyo declined to fund a two-billion-dollar railway expansion project in Saudi Arabia.
Kono said he hoped to extend cooperation to other areas, such as "human resources, the environment, health, science and technology, culture, sports, investments and joint projects."
As of the end of last year, Japan had invested $3.2 billion in Saudi Arabia, with which it had 37 joint projects, Kono said.
On commercial front, the relations between Riyadh and Tokyo have been increasing steadily. During 1999, Japan imported 0.93 million barrels of per day from Saudi Arabia, which has emerged to be the country's second largest oil supplier. The Kingdom is also the main refined products supplier with its total supplies constituting 11.7 percent of refined products imported by Japan in 1999.
Japan imported 6.3 million tons of liquefied petroleum gas during the period. Tokyo has also been ranked the second largest trading partner of the Kingdom after the US with two-way trade exceeding $10.9 billion annually.
The total GCC-Japan trade totaled $32 billion last year. Japan has also launched a training program for Saudis and as many as 1,333 Saudis have participated in training programs since 1960.
