Satoshi Ogawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is unlikely to have an official meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit to be held in Washington for two days from Monday, it was learned Tuesday.
Obama will meet leaders from nine nations, including China, on the sidelines of the security summit meeting, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon. However, Gibbs did not mention a meeting with Hatoyama.
While an official meeting appears to have been ruled out, Hatoyama and Obama are likely to meet briefly, as sources close to both governments said they were trying to coordinate their schedules.
Both governments were reportedly keen to hold a bilateral meeting, with the United States apparently hoping to seek Japan's support for a sanctions resolution against Iran at the U.N. Security Council this month. Japan currently holds the council presidency.
However, the U.S. government seems to have cooled to the idea of an official meeting, due to a delay in reaching a consensus on the resolution with China and a standoff over the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture.
Forty-seven countries have been invited to the summit meeting, and Hatoyama plans to attend. Obama is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, among others.
The most recent U.S.-Japan summit talks were held in November when Obama visited Japan.
Hatoyama had hoped to hold talks with Obama during the Conference of Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December, but was turned down, with the United States saying there had been no progress on the Futenma issue.
(Apr. 8, 2010)
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