Japan continues to attach great importance to the role of the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences (PMC), as a forum for comprehensive dialogue in the Asia Pacific region.

I wish to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Vietnam on joining ASEAN this year as well as on its participation in the PMC.

I also would like to pay my deepest respect to all ASEAN countries, in particular to the Government of Brunei Darussalam who has made immense efforts for the success of the PMC, and the Government of Thailand who has played the role of coordinator between ASEAN and Japan.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the war. Needless to say, it is imperative that Japan, facing up squarely to our history, without forgetting remorse for the past, further strengthen bonds f mutual understanding and mutual trust with our Asian neighbors. Taking this opportunity, I would like to emphasize once again that the stance underlying all of Japanese foreign policy is to rake every effort to build world peace.

Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to express briefly Japan's basic view. on the development of the Asia Pacific region, one of our major interests.

The Asia Pacific region is now in a critical period that determines whether the region's astounding economic growth in recent years can be developed into sustainable peace and prosperity in the future. In this context, the U.S. involvement, needless to say, continues to be an indispensable factor for the prosperity and stability of the region.

For further development of the region, it is important that the countries of the region have closer and firmer relations in every area, including economic, political and security ones, enhance mutual trust ,with one another, and create a sense of community; to this end, regional cooperation should be encouraged further. In order that this regional cooperation of such significance can develop soundly, we need to recognize the importance of the more active participation by China, our good partner, into the regional cooperation.

As I expressed in, a speech on 28 July before leaving Japan, I consider it particularly significant that, in promoting the regional cooperation hereafter, each country in the Asia Pacific bear in mind the following three principles, fully recognizing its own responsibilities as a member of the international community.

The first principle is that cooperation in this region should further strengthen interdependence throughout the region, meaning that it should be based upon the clear realization that regional prosperity feeds national prosperity and should serve to further region-wide cooperation as epitomized by APEC.

The second principle is that Asia Pacific regional cooperation should build upon the various interlocking frameworks for cooperation, meaning that it should respect the different countries and regions' characteristics and stages of development, should make flexible use of the various frameworks for dialogue and cooperation existing in the region, and, linking these frameworks, should heighten the sense of shared identity within the region and contribute to region-wide stability and prosperity.

And the third principle is that Asia Pacific regional cooperation should be open to extra-regional players, meaning that it should be compatible with such global frameworks as the United Nations and the WTO and should sere to 'complement and strengthen these frameworks.

Working from these principles, it is clear that region-wide frameworks such as APEC and ARF should be central to our efforts. And then we should make use of new fora for discussion established by sub-regional groupings of countries with shared interests and concerns that complement and promote regional cooperation in a right direction. Likewise, we should not commit ourselves to those groupings that are likely to prove detrimental to regional cooperation as a whole.

Furthermore, the Asia Pacific region, while due regard needs to be paid to its diversity, is hereafter required to promote universal standard of values such as democracy and market economy, and to make use of its dynamism for addressing problems common to all humankind, thereby making ore contribution to the world as a whole.

Japan's efforts for the development of the region and expectations for ASEAN in a new stage.

I hope that ASEAN, showing such new dimensions, will play a positive role as an important actor, not only in the Asia Pacific region but also in the international community as a whole, concentrating dynamism of the entire Southeast Asia region to bring about a synergy effect within and outside the region. In this regard, duly acknowledging ASEAN's valuable contribution to the development of the Indochina region, Japan wishes to support for a balanced development of the entire region and therefore intends to promote cooperation with ASEAN through initiatives such as the Forum for Comprehensive Development of Indochina.

Let me conclude my statement by saying that Japan is determined to continue to take initiatives in the joint task of creating an affluent and peaceful Asia Pacific, working together with others, through various multilateral fora and bilateral dialogues.

Japan, for her part, intends to make efforts to further solidify the peace and prosperity in the region, in collaboration with other Asia Pacific countries, taking full account of the three aforementioned principles.

Economic prosperity in the Asia Pacific is based upon the peace and stability of the region. So the proceeds of economic development in the region should be allocated to regional stability, and countries in the region should set a model to the world that economic development and pursuit of peace advance side by side.

In this respect, I would like to express my appreciation that ASEAN actively have taken several new initiatives such as the ASEAN Regional Forum, the Southeast Asia 10 summit initiative extending the membership to countries in the Indochina region, and the Asia Europe Meeting planned next year