Shii on G-8 Summit in Genoa


Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on July 22 published the
following statement on the Group of Eight Summit in Genoa which closed on
the same day:


In Genoa, arrogant and dangerous U.S. hegemony was more explicit than in
any past summit meeting, on political and economic issues as well as on
global environmental issues. The Genoa summit turned out to be an
international political arena which threw into relief the Koizumi Cabinet's
foreign policy stance, which is subservient to any outrageous U.S. demands.


On the discussion of the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework Convention
on Climate Change, which attracted international attention, the U.S. refused
to give up its unjustifiable attitude of trying to wreck the international
agreement, with the result that the international effort to prevent global
warming has been slowed down. European countries and Canada insisted that
the Kyoto Protocol on global warming be ratified even without the U.S.,
which has withdrawn from the agreement. By contrast, Prime Minister Koizumi
Jun'ichiro sympathized with the U.S. position. He stopped short of
expressing Japan's intention to ratify the agreement on the grounds that he
was acting as a mediator between the U.S. and European countries. Japan,
which chaired the 1997 Kyoto Conference (COP3), came under fire from many
countries, and the Koizumi Cabinet is assessed as representing a country
that is the least enthusiastic about taking environmental measures.


On the question of nuclear weapons, including the Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty and the "missile defense" plan, the U.S. attitude was one of trying
to kill the existing international agreements. The G-8 communique does not
mention the early coming into effect of the CTBT and the anti-ballistic
missiles (ABM) treaty, although the two appeared in the communique of last
year's G-8 Okinawa summit. Prime Minister Koizumi showed himself to be
servile to the U.S. on this question as well, which is unacceptable as the
prime minister of Japan, the atom-bombed country and the chair of last
year's G-8 summit meeting.


It is also serious that Prime Minister Koizumi internationally promised
to carry out "structural reforms" which will impose enormous burdens on the
Japanese people. This is an indication of the dangerous and hypocritical
nature of the Koizumi Cabinet of exploiting international pressure to carry
out a national policy which entails massive bankruptcies and unemployment
and is disastrous to the people and the national economy. (end)