Satoshi Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama will have a chance to chat with U.S. President Barack Obama next week, as they likely will be seated next to each other at a banquet at the Nuclear Security Summit meeting in Washington, it has been learned.
The United States announced Tuesday there would be no official meeting between the leaders on the sidelines of the two-day summit, but appears to have made the seating gesture out of consideration for Tokyo's request for a bilateral meeting.
According to sources close to Japan-U.S. diplomatic issues, both governments are finishing off the final details of the seating arrangement.
Representatives of 47 nations are expected to attend Monday's banquet. Political topics are usually kept off the agenda at banquets attended by representatives of many nations, and the content of their conversations is rarely made public.
Hatoyama has been trying to set up a meeting with Obama to discuss the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, a topic that has strained bilateral ties.
"I hope to tell [the president] personally what my intentions are on this issue," Hatoyama said to reporters Wednesday night. "I want to inform him of the current situation."
At a banquet for U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen in December, Hatoyama told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was seated next to him, about the government's postponement of a decision over the relocation of the air base and that it planned to weigh up new options before reaching a conclusion.
After the talks, Hatoyama told reporters Clinton had expressed an "understanding" of Japan's position. However, U.S. officials later denied this was the case.
(Apr. 9, 2010)
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