Japan Seeks Stronger Mongolia Ties
By WILLIAM SPOSATO
TOKYO—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveled to Mongolia(外蒙古) on Saturday, pledging(保证) greater cooperation in energy and trade relations, as Japan seeks closer ties in the region to offset China.
The trip is the first by a Japanese prime minister in seven years. Officials say Mr. Abe will stress his "three spirits" of peace, freedom and democracy, and mutual benefit in his talks that conclude on Sunday.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe follows his Mongolian counterpart, Norov Altankhuyag, during a welcoming ceremony(典礼) in Mongolia on Saturday.
For Mr. Abe, the trip is a chance to push for Japanese involvement in the long-stalled Tavan Tolgoi coal project, believed to be one of the largest untapped(未开发的) coal reserves in the world. The visit also offers the chance for Mr. Abe to seek a potentially friendly ear for his concerns about North Korea and China.
"I would like to open a new era in Japan-Mongolia relations," Mr. Abe said in a meeting with Mongolian Prime Minister Norov Altankhuyag, noting that the two nations already have in place a "strategic partnership."
He said he wants to speed up talks on a free-trade agreement. Japan has been seen as a laggard(落后者) in forming such economic ties against rivals such as South Korea.
The trip to Ulaanbaatar is the latest in a series of regional visits by Mr. Abe and members of his cabinet. Since taking office in December, the prime minister has been to Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand as he seeks greater economic cooperation to reduce Japan's economic reliance on China, currently its biggest trading partner.
Mr. Abe has also met with U.S. President Barack Obama and is expected to visit Russia in May. But notable in its absence has been any announcement of a trip to Beijing, which has taken Japan to task over the past six months over its nationalization of a set of disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Japanese officials have said the Mongolian trip shouldn't be viewed as "anti-Chinese" but have stressed the ideas of security and democracy. Mongolia, which is hemmed in by Russia and China with no access to the sea, has said it views Japan as a "third neighbor."
The talks also included discussions about an increasingly bellicose(好战的) North Korea, which has responded to increasing pressure from the U.S. and others with increasingly strong language, announcing on Saturday that it was at a "state of war" with South Korea.
"We shouldn't allow any provocative act by North Korea," Mr. Abe said at a later joint news conference with Mr. Altankhuyag.
Japan, which has worried about its lack of domestic energy supplies since the 1970s Middle East oil shocks, is also on the hunt for stable energy sources. That drive has become more urgent since the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident has shut down almost all of the country's nuclear power plants.
"At a time when most nuclear power plants are out of operation, the government needs to think strategically about how to secure energy resources," Japanese chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said on Friday.
Mongolia is rich in minerals, with uranium(铀) and rare earth deposits in addition to its coal reserves. But talks have dragged on over the Tavan Tolgoi project with a number of global consortiums(财团) bidding for rights to take part.
"We don't have abundant(丰富的) resources in Japan but have technological strengths, so our cooperation is very beneficial," Mr. Abe said at the joint news conference.
source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 53156.html
reference
offset (China): to cancel or reduce the effect of (China)
long-stalled project: 此处指日蒙之间一项长期拖延停滞下来的项目，stall: to stop suddenly because of a problem，
reduce economic reliance on China: 减少对中国的经济方面的依赖
take Japan to task: to criticize (Japan) harshly
drag on (over): to go on for a long time, to progress slowly