JEDDAH, 26 March - Japan has expressed its serious concerns about the situation in Palestine and welcomed the peace initiative of Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard. This was conveyed in a message for the crown prince handed over to Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, here on Sunday.
"The message welcomes the crown prince's peace initiative and expresses its hope that the Beirut summit will carry the initiative further and strengthen peace in the Middle East," Japanese Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe said at Jeddah Hilton yesterday.
"The Saudi initiative has given a new direction and hope. It has come at a time when the situation in Palestine is disparate. A final settlement of the Palestine question is not easy, but is not impossible," he said in an interview with Arab News.
The ambassador, who arrived in the Kingdom in November, also had a meeting with Director of Intelligence Prince Nawaf.
Abe said Japan was involved in a giant joint venture desalination plant coming up in Jubail.
"This Eastern Province project is part of the Kingdom's privatization drive, and is aimed at attracting private sector investments," he said, adding that the multi-billion riyal plant, expected to be ready in two or three years, would have capacity to produce 730,000 tons of water and would also connect a pipeline to Riyadh.
"Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Governor Prince Abdullah ibn Faisal ibn Turki will visit Japan in May. The visit, among other things, is aimed at promoting further mutual interests," he said.
Japan, he added, had shown keen interest in the Kingdom's gas initiative under which there might be some projects or subcontracts for consideration.
"No Japanese company is among the main contenders for contracts but surely the multibillion dollar initiative could spell subcontracts for our companies," he said.
Asked whether Japan was attracting students from the Kingdom as they were now increasingly looking toward the East and the Far East, the ambassador said: "Not many are coming, actually, because of the language barrier. There may be a couple of hundred students in Japan, which offers scholarships for more than 1,000 students the world over. However, the Kingdom's share is less than 10 such scholarships."
He said 30 to 40 Saudi students have taken up Japanese language courses at King Saud University.
