Transcript of doorstop interview of Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo with Singapore Media, The Salon, Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, 27 October 2007, 1800 hrs

Min: I had a good visit to both Beijing and Tokyo meeting Minister Yang Jiechi and Minister Koumura. I was grateful to them for accommodating my requests for informal consultations at such short notice. And in fact, I could not leave Beijing last night because of the fog and I arrived late here in Tokyo and Mr Koumura stayed back to meet me. We were in broad agreement on the main points that the regional countries have a very important role to play in creating conditions for genuine national reconciliation in Myanmar. So after Beijing and Tokyo, I'll be visiting Delhi to meet Foreign Minister Mukherjee on November the 10th. The regional countries play different roles. ASEAN is family and interacts with Myanmar as a family interacting with one of its members. China and India are neighbours with long borders having quite complicated histories with the people of Myanmar. As for Japan, there's a lot of affection among people here for the people of Myanmar and Japan can play a positive role. So we are meeting in Singapore for the Summit next month and it's important that the leaders come to broad agreement on how we can help the Myanmar people in this difficult period of their history. In the end it is they who must strike the compromises and decide for themselves what kind of a country to have. The military has got to be a part of the solution but Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD must also be a part of the solution. We are fortunate in having Gambari, a man who can help catalyse this process of national reconciliation. He represents the UN and with the regional countries can and should help him in his effort. He was in Beijing and Tokyo just before me and I believe had good meetings in both countries and I will be meeting him in Singapore on Monday to see how we can work closely together to further the process of negotiation that is beginning to take place. We saw on television General Aung Kyi meeting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi a couple of days ago. Was it yesterday or day before yesterday? Never mind, at the meeting recently, it would have been good if we could hear what Aung San Suu Kyi had to say but images anyhow indicated some progress and we hope there would be further progress before the Summit in Singapore so that Myanmar would not dominate our entire agenda. We have other important issues to discuss like the Asean Charter which we would be signing and climate change. So, over to you.

Q: You mentioned that you just came from Beijing as well. I was wondering what was Beijing's stance on the Myanmar situation?

Min: We had a general discussion and I was pleased that both Minister Yang and I had no disagreement. We agreed on all the main issues: that it is important for us who live in the region to see peaceful change, that if nothing is done, the situation is potentially explosive and that therefore we should work together to help the Myanmar people embark on a fresh approach towards national reconciliation.

Q: How about the Japan side? Did they reflect everything they are concerned about Myanmar and what are they willing to do further?

Min: Minister Koumura expressed his strong support for what we are trying to do in ASEAN and I thanked him for Japan's support and I stressed the importance of Japan playing a postive role in this regard. Japan was very calibrated in its response following the killing of the journalist Kenji Nagai, cutting off grant aid but maintaining humanitarian aid. The Japanese want to maintain engagement, there's a lot of affection among the Japanese people for the people of Myanmar and Japan has always been helpful to us in ASEAN and I believe Japan will stay helpful to us during this period.

Q: And during the meeting, are they satisfied with what Beijing reflected to you, to Singapore? I mean how the things are going on and how's their thinking?

Min: We had a general discussion and he did ask me about my discussions with Minister Yang. So I told him that we had good discussions and we had a general meeting of minds just as I had a general meeting of minds with Minister Koumura.

Q: have you discussed topics other than the Myanmar situation with Minister Koumura?

Min: Climate change will be an important subject at the ASEAN Summit and he indicated Japan's wish to also raise North Korea which I believe ought also to be on our agenda. For us, the most important event during the Summit will be the signing of the ASEAN Charter which calls for celebration because it took us a long time to get to this point. All the details have been settled. All we need now is for the leaders to sign on the dotted line and this document will lay the basis for our future integration which is very important for the stability for Asia in this century. Thank you very much.

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