Shii raps Foreign Ministry for masking Suzuki-Russia secret talks

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo criticized the Foreign Ministry for being reluctant to investigate into the secret talks that House of Representatives member Suzuki Muneo (Liberal Democratic Party at the time) held with a senior Russian government official last year.

At a news conference on March 21 in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Shii said, "Prime Minister Koizumi Jun'ichiro has a responsibility to look into the revelation and make known all the facts to the Japanese people."

The JCP on March 19 had revealed a Foreign Ministry record of the conversation Suzuki had with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander P. Losyukov on March 5 2001.

The secret meeting was attended by Togo Kazuhiko, then Foreign Ministry European Affairs Bureau director-general, Suzuki floated the idea that two instead of four Russian-held northern islands might be returned to Japan as a first step. This proposal contradicts the Japanese government's demand that the "four islands" be returned at the same time.

Shii said that a meeting attended by a senior Foreign Ministry official should be taken as official talks, and that Togo in the talks gave tacit approval to Suzuki's proposal. "Despite this, the government is ignorant of how serious such a two-track approach is," Shii said.

He stressed that the ministry and the government cannot evade their responsibility by insisting that it was Suzuki's private meeting. In fact, Foreign Minister Kawaguchi Yoriko admitted that the ministry's senior official was present at the secret talks. (end)