WATCHING THE WORLD: No cigar in Tokyo

April 16, 2007
Oil and gas were on the agenda when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met in Tokyo last week seeking to build “mutually beneficial strategic ties and a steady improvement in relations.

Oil and gas were on the agenda when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met in Tokyo last week seeking to build “mutually beneficial strategic ties and a steady improvement in relations.”

Ahead of their talks, Abe praised Wen’s visit as “a big step forward” toward nurturing the strategic relationship, while Wen said his trip “will lead to significant achievements and reflects both sides’ desires.”

Afterward, the two nations issued separate joint statements on boosting environmental and energy cooperation. Abe and Wen were also expected to issue a joint document confirming collaboration in areas of common interest.

A joint statement signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers featured a commitment of “political will” to fight global warming in a new climate change framework beginning in 2013.

Nuclear agreement

Japan and China also agreed in a statement by their ministers in charge of industry and state development to boost tie-ups in promoting energy saving in China utilizing Japanese technology. They even reaffirmed cooperation in construction of nuclear power plants.

Along the way, the two sides actually signed an accord to lift China’s four-year ban on imports of Japanese rice, with the first 25-ton shipment aimed at high-end Chinese consumers due to arrive in Beijing and Shanghai in July.

But the two sides did not say much about oil or gas, certainly not the Russian oil they both are squabbling over, or the disputed gas they both want at the bottom of the East China Sea.

The Russian oil-and the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline that will transport it-must be a sensitive topic between the two Asian nations. After all, it was China that first broached the subject of such a pipeline with Russia several years ago.

Sounds of silence

But memory is short and desire is long, especially in Russia where a crafty old Kremlin saw-and has since exploited-competition between Japan and China over supplies of oil and gas.

Even now, with the ESPO system under construction, Russia continues to play the two sides against each other in an effort to extract more concessions from them-and we don’t mean oil concessions. No, plainly and simply, the Russians want more cash.

As for the gas beneath the East China Sea, well, the Russians have no part in that disagreement. Intransigence there is strictly between the Japanese and Chinese, and both sides seem pretty determined in their own views.

Put simply, the Chinese are drilling in waters they consider their own, while the Japanese see those waters-and the gas-as belonging to both sides. Up to now, there has been no agreement on anything to do with the area.

Make no mistake: oil and gas were on the agenda of both countries. Very clearly, though, they were on the unspoken agenda.