April 27, 2010
Tokyo, April 27 (Jiji Press) -- Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Tuesday that Japan did not keep a log of informal talks between Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit earlier this month.
Only interpreters joined the brief Hatoyama-Obama talks in Washington on April 12, Okada said at a meeting of the House of Councillors Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
The Japanese side did not take notes on what was said, he said.
Ichita Yamamoto, a lawmaker of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, criticized that it is inconceivable that the government did not keep a record of talks between the two leaders. This would make later verification impossible, he said.
With the leaders believed to have addressed the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station in Okinawa Prefecture, having no record of the talks is feared to obscure bilateral negotiation procedures over the issue.
(2010/04/27-16:22)
Posts
