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TOKYO: Asia's stability will depend largely on the relationship between its two superpowers, Japan and China, according to the outgoing US ambassador to Japan.
"I think the greatest foreign policy challenge in this region is how Japan and China arrange their relationships," said Howard Baker on his last day as ambassador. How the two countries managed this challenge was "going to say a lot about how stable this region is for years to come", he said.
"Japan is a superpower, China is on its way to becoming a superpower. They are both rich, they both have a history in this region, and they don't much like each other, I think," he said.
Tensions between Japan and China have grown recently over territorial issues involving areas of the East China Sea and the visits of Junichiro Koizumi, Japanese prime minister to the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo where the spirits of war victims including some war criminals are enshrined.
But Baker said the security of Taiwan was a more serious concern.
"I think Japan has always been concerned about the situation in the Taiwan Strait and perhaps they are more concerned about it now," he said. Because of this, diplomatic relations with China would be "a major challenge". He said "all the world, particularly the United States" would be watching how Japan and China fared.
Baker also emphasised the importance of bringing North Korea back to the negotiating table over its nuclear weapons programme, although sanctions were unlikely to achieve that.
"Sanctions are a tool but seldom effective unless it is a multilateral undertaking," he said. "In this case, it probably won't be really effective unless you've got South Korea, China, and maybe Russia on board, and at present I do not see that on the cards."
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