Australian minister in Japan amid whale row

by Hiroshi Hiyama
Jan 31, 2008

TOKYO (AFP) - Australia's foreign minister held talks with Japan Thursday amid a bitter feud on whaling as the two countries tried to show that their close relationship was otherwise intact.

Stephen Smith was on his first foreign trip since taking office, coming to Japan from mutual ally the United States. He held talks late Thursday with his Japanese counterpart, Masahiko Komura.

The two foreign ministers signed a treaty on avoiding double taxation, with Komura thanking Smith for visiting Japan so early in the two-month-old government's tenure.

"I would like to further enhance this relationship," Komura said.

But speaking to reporters shortly before the meeting, Komura acknowledged that the whaling row was bound to come up.

"When we see each other we will inevitably have to talk about it," Komura said. "Minister Smith may bring up the whaling issue, or I may bring up the harassment issue."

Japan, which says whaling is part of its culture, kills some 1,000 of the giant mammals a year despite passionate opposition from Western countries led by Australia and vociferous opposition from animal groups.

Environmentalists regularly harass the Japanese whalers. In mid-January, two activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society hopped onto a harpoon ship, setting off a standoff.

Sea Shepherd said Thursday that its ship had returned to port in Melbourne as it was running out of fuel, allowing Japan to resume killing whales.

Some Japanese officials had privately voiced concern about Australia's new Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat with a fondness for China, which often has uneasy relations with Japan.

Smith, speaking last week when his trip was announced, said his visit "demonstrates the priority Australia gives to the bilateral relationship."

A senior Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked for anonymity, said Smith's visit was an important reassurance.

"We see this as a message by the new Australian government that Japan remains an important ally for Australia," the official said.

"Whaling of course will be talked about at the foreign ministerial talks, but the two ministers have already discussed it over the telephone and agreed not to make it a diplomatic issue," he said.

Rudd's government has sent a customs ship to track the Japanese whalers. His Labor Party accused the previous conservative government of John Howard of failing to press for an end to whaling due to concern about business with Japan, Australia's top trading partner.

Under Howard, Japan agreed to start talks on a free-trade agreement which, if realised, would be the first between Asia's largest economy and a major agricultural exporter.

Howard last year signed a security pact with Japan -- officially pacifist Tokyo's first such deal other than its alliance with the United States.

As Smith arrived, nearly 100 experts and officials on both sides of the whaling dispute met in Japan in a bid to reach some understanding on the future of the International Whaling Commission, which is bitterly divided between countries which support whaling and those that oppose it.

The symposium, which will submit recommendations to the commission's next meeting, was arranged by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-governmental US research institute.

The commission imposed a 1986 moratorium on whaling, but Japan argues that it should go back to its original mandate of managing whale populations for hunting.