Japan plans Pakistan aid conference

[LahoreEstate]

Japan plans Pakistan aid conference
TOKYO (February 03 2009): Japan is inviting key nations to a conference to drum up aid to stabilise Pakistan in what it hopes would be one of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's first foreign trips, a senior official said Monday. Japan is eager to build ties with President Barack Obama's administration, which has vowed to focus on fighting extremism in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan's precarious financial situation has caused world-wide alarm due to its role as a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" and its position as the Islamic world's only nuclear power.

The Nikkei business newspaper said Japan was inviting more than 10 countries to the meeting in late March or early April in Tokyo and that it would drum up billions of dollars in aid pledges. "The Japanese government has this in mind. But its schedule and other details are not yet decided," government spokesman Jun Matsumoto, the deputy chief cabinet secretary, told a news conference.

"The stability of Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, is extremely important as it would work against terrorism and eventually for the peace and stability of the international community," he said. Asked if Clinton would attend, he said: "Naturally, that is one of our assumptions." A Pakistani diplomat in Tokyo said the conference would bring together countries in the so-called "Friends of Pakistan" - a group formed last year to help consolidate democracy in the country.

The group comprises 14 countries and organisations including Britain, China, France and the United States as well as predominantly Muslim nations such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

"If all goes well, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will come," said Iftikhar Babar, head of the Pakistani embassy's economic division. "The main focus - as so many vital development projects are there - is to seek some budget-related assistance," Babar told AFP.

Babar said a date for the conference could be finalised during a visit to Tokyo this week by Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan's de facto finance minister, who will also be discussing a recent International Monetary Fund package for Islamabad. The IMF in November approved a credit line of 7.6 billion dollars for Pakistan over 23 months, the fund's first rescue in Asia since the global financial crisis began.

But experts estimate more than a billion dollars in additional funding is needed to stabilise Pakistan's economy. Japan, the world's second largest economy, has relied on its financial clout as a key tool of foreign policy. Japan has also dispatched ships to the Indian Ocean to refuel ships and warplanes engaged in the "war on terror" in Afghanistan. But even the limited role is controversial due to Japan's pacifist post-World War II constitution.

Clinton is expected separately to visit Japan, South Korea and China this month, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in Seoul. In Japan, Jiji Press and other media, quoting unnamed sources, said Clinton had agreed to make Japan the first stop of her Asian trip.

Such an itinerary would delight Japan, which is highly sensitive to any slights to its standing as the key US ally in the region. Some Japanese leaders have bitter memories of Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, who pressed Tokyo hard on trade issues and flew over Japan when heading on a key 1998 visit to China.

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