HONOLULU, Hawaii, Oct 28, 2010 (AFP) - The United States and Japan responded Wednesday to China's muscle flexing by reaffirming the strength of their security alliance and vowing to diversify sources of rare earths imports.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara presented a united front after talks in the US Pacific island state of Hawaii, the launch pad for Clinton's upcoming seven-country tour of Asia.
The tour, her sixth to the region since she took office 21 months ago, comes as Japan and Southeast Asian countries worry about a more assertive China and as analysts see Washington acting as a counter-balance.
“This (US-Japan) alliance is the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia-Pacific,” the chief US diplomat said, adding it has for decades underpinned regional peace and helped both countries prosper.
Standing next to Clinton and speaking through an interpreter, Maehara said: “We should like to engage in deeper consultations in order ensure bilateral cooperation for the defense of Japan.”Both spoke of planning for a variety of “contingencies.”Many Asian nations already worry about China's growing assertiveness over disputed territories -- especially South China Sea archipelagos also claimed in full or part by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.
The United States has weighed in, saying such disputes should be resolved through diplomacy -- effectively backing its wartime-foe Vietnam, whose fishing boats have been detained by China near disputed islands.
To the north, a dispute still simmers between China and Japan after Tokyo on September 8 arrested a Chinese trawler captain near Japanese-administered islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
“Let me say clearly again the Senkakus fall within the scope of article 5 of the 1960 US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security,” Clinton told a Japanese reporter who had asked about the dispute.
Under the treaty, the United States is obliged to defend Japan against any attack on a territory under Tokyo's administration.
“We consider the US-Japanese alliance as one of the most important alliance partnerships we have anywhere in the world, and we are committed to our obligations to protect the Japanese people,” she said.
Maehara and Clinton also stressed the importance of finding alternatives to China for supplies of rare earths used in high-tech products.
“We have to diversify the sources of rare earth minerals, and here again Japan and the United States will closely cooperate with each other in order to engage in more diversified rare earth minerals diplomacy,” Maehara said.
Clinton meanwhile welcomed remarks from officials in Beijing that China will not use its near-global monopoly on the rare earths trade as a “bargaining tool.”Clinton, reacting to the remarks as described to her by a journalist, quipped that it may make her conversation shorter with Chinese state councilor Dai Bingguo when she meets him on China's Hainan island on Saturday.
“At the same time because of the importance of these rare earth minerals, both the minister and I are aware that our countries and others will have to look for additional sources of supply,” she said.
“That is in our interests commercially and strategically,” she said.
Rare earths -- a group of 17 elements -- are used in high-tech products ranging from flat-screen televisions to lasers to hybrid cars, and China controls more than 95 percent of the global market.
On other topics, the two top diplomats discussed efforts to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs.
The pair also discussed plans for next month's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Yokohama, Japan, which will gather leaders from the 21 nations on the Pacific rim.
Clinton also said she was “encouraged” by progress Japan has made toward ratifying the 1980 Hague convention that requires the return of wrongfully held children to their countries of usual residence.
In a grueling two-week tour, Clinton will travel to Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia.
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