Brussels / Kobe, 12/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono will be in Stockholm, on Sunday 14 and Monday 15 January, in order to take part in a working dinner with the European Troika. European security and defence policy, bilateral relations, developments in Asia, in Russia and in the Western Balkans and the Middle East will be tackled with, among others, the Foreign Ministers of Sweden, Anna Lindh; and of Belgium, Louis Michel, as well as European Commissioner Chris Patten and CFSP High Representative Javier Solana.
We recall that a meeting will also be held on Sunday in Kobe between the European Troika and Japan at the level of finance ministers, the day after the meeting of ASEM ministers responsible for this portfolio (see EUROPE of 11 January, p.10). The day before this session, Japan took a stance in favour of the adoption of a new exchange rate regime in Asia, taking inspiration from that in Europe, with the yen as a reference currency for the other currencies of the region. "Asia must learn from the European experience in order to prevent reoccurrence of the regional monetary crisis" of 1997, said Japanese Finance Minister Haruhiko Kuroda, on Friday. He specified in an interview reported in several Nippon dailies, that he would suggest his partners consider at medium or long term the "solution of a currency basket", a sort of "EMS within ASEAN", that could one day result in a common currency.