Kennedy: Japan ‘indispensable partner’
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000633420
September 21, 2013
Jiji Press
WASHINGTON (Jiji
Press)—Caroline Kennedy, President Barack Obama’s nominee for U.S. ambassador
to Japan, said Thursday that Japan is an invaluable partner of the United
States, and that there are many opportunities for enhancing bonds to help with
postquake recovery.
“Japan is an
indispensable partner in promoting democracy and economic development in the
region,” Kennedy said in a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Foreign
Relations Committee.
“As the United States rebalances toward Asia, our
alliance with Japan
remains the cornerstone of peace, stability and prosperity in the region, as it
has been for more than 50 years,” she said.
“Japan is enjoying a period of political
stability and economic renewal and is eager to increase trade and investment
with the United States,”
she added.
“If confirmed, I look
forward to working with American business to promote American exports, expand
trade and support initiatives” such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership
multilateral trade negotiations, she said.
The United States is committed to supporting Japan over the Senkaku
Islands in Okinawa Prefecture
under Article 5 of the bilateral security treaty, she added. However, the top
priority of the United
States is “for all parties in the region to
seek to lower the tensions as much as possible.”
“There seems to be
some hope for progress on the Okinawa issues,”
she said, referring to stalled plans to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma
Air Station in the prefecture.
She said she first
visited Japan in 1978 with
her uncle, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and was “deeply affected” by their
visit to Hiroshima.
She stressed that she would be humbled to “represent the powerful bonds that unite
our two democratic societies.”
“I can think of no
country in which I would rather serve than Japan,” she said. “I think there
are a lot of opportunities for us to continue to promote exchange programs and
other kinds of efforts” to help Japan
rebuild from the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.