Powell to tackle some tough issues,
seek common ground on Asia tour
By Jim Lea, Osan bureau chief
Secretary of State Colin Powell left Washington on Sunday for his
first trip to Asia since taking office.
The journey will take him through some briar patches as well as down
memory lane.
The 64-year-old soldier-diplomat is scheduled to visit Tokyo, Hanoi
in Vietnam, Seoul, Beijing and Canberra in Australia. At a State Department briefing
Friday in Washington, he said he is looking forward to the trip.
“Asia is an exciting region in the midst of great
transformation,” he said. “Now I have the opportunity to go there and cover a
lot of ground in a short period of time.”
The trip comes at the same time Powell expressed his wish for Seoul
and Tokyo to overcome their current differences over new Japanese history textbooks.
“I hope Japan and South Korea will be able to move forward on
the textbook issue,” Powell said Thursday at a news conference in Genoa, Italy, on
the eve of the G-8 Summit.
Powell said there is enough mutual interest between Washington, Seoul
and Tokyo in dealing with North Korea.
Issues that Powell will encounter at each stop on the Asia trip
include:
Tokyo
He arrives Monday. He is likely to further discussions that began at
the G-8 meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on revising the Status of
Forces Agreement that governs the U.S. military presence in the country.
Okinawan officials are demanding a SOFA revision that will allow
Japanese authorities to take custody more quickly of U.S. troops accused of breaking
Japanese law. The demand came after a U.S. Air Force member allegedly raped an Okinawan
woman in a parking lot in late June.
Powell and Tanaka agreed in Genoa to make “operational
changes” to the SOFA, but newspapers in both Okinawa and on the Japanese mainland are
demanding the document be completely revised.
Hanoi, Vietnam
Powell is scheduled to arrive Tuesday to attend the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum. At Friday’s briefing, he said he would
express Washington’s “solid backing for ASEAN and its efforts for integration
and economic openness.”
He also will attempt to reopen talks with North Korea. North Korean
Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun has canceled his trip to Hanoi for the meeting, but Powell
said the “North Koreans will have a delegation in Hanoi, and we will be in a
conference room together. I can’t say what conversations might transpire.”
Seoul
He arrives Friday and is most likely to discuss the North Korea
stalemate with South Korean leaders. Washington has been trying to restart talks with
Pyongyang that broke down when the Bush administration entered office in January. The
North also halted all official contact with Seoul in March.
Powell may find himself the focal point of some protests in South
Korea. Among the current anti-American controversies are a new land use program under
which some 15 U.S. bases will be closed, and the proposed U.S. missile defense shield.
Beijing
He arrives there Saturday. Powell said he believes the United States
and China “can build a more stable [and] constructive relationship,” and that
China “is a nation that need not be seen as an enemy.” But he added he will
“discuss candidly” issues of Chinese weapons proliferation, human rights and
religious freedom.
He said he expects to meet with “all prominent principal
leaders” in Beijing and would discuss with them plans for President Bush’s
planned October trip to Beijing.
Chinese leaders likely will bring up U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and,
perhaps, Bush’s statement that the United States will do whatever necessary to defend
Taiwan.
Canberra, Australia
He will join Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the Australian
capital on July 29 to attend the annual ministerial consultation meeting the following
day.
Powell will leave Australia on July 31 and will arrive back in
Washington on Aug. 1.
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