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JCP Fuwa and Ichida hold talks with Tunisian foreign minister Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Chair Fuwa Tetsuzo and Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on June 2 held talks with Habib Ben Yahia, the Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the Tunisian ambassador's official residence in Tokyo. Fuwa and Ben Yahia confirmed that friendly relations between the JCP and the Tunisian government have been developing since their meeting last summer in Tunis. A message of friendship and greeting from Secretary General Ali Chaouch of the Tunisian ruling party Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) was conveyed to the JCP. Ben Yahia talked about the successful Arab Summit (May 22-24 in Tunis), and asked Fuwa to brief him about the JCP views on the Northeast Asian situation and the North Korea issue. Explaining Japan's bilateral and multilateral roles for establishing a stable and peaceful Northeast Asia, Fuwa related how the JCP broke relations with North Korea, twice made proposals in 1999 in the parliament to open channels for normalizing Japan-DPRK relations, followed by steps taken by Japan's parliamentarians and the government. Fuwa stated that the issues of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals and nuclear development must be settled peacefully. The Tunisian foreign minister said that settling matters through negotiations is the basic foreign policy of Tunisia shared by the JCP. He stressed how Tunisia has been dealing peacefully with the issues of North Africa, Iraq, and Palestine. In his historical review of the Middle East question, Fuwa analyzed that it is a step forward that the idea of Palestine-Israel coexistence has been commonly accepted. However, a global framework in addition to a regional one is necessary for the complete solution of this question, Fuwa added. Stressing a great role for the United Nations on the Iraq question, Fuwa said that the world must now watch whether Iraq will be under a U.N.-led framework or a U.S.-led occupation with a supplementary role for the U.N. In this regard, the call of the Arab Summit talks for the complete transfer of sovereignty to Iraq bears a grave impact, Fuwa continued. Both agreed that global issues, including Northeast Asia and the Middle East, should be resolved peacefully through talks. (end) |
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