Japan's finance minister told visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner Thursday that his country will take steps to reduce its dependency on oil imports from Iran, taking a much more conciliatory approach to the matter than China did a few days ago.
Japan
's
finance minister told visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner
Thursday that his country will take steps to reduce its dependency on oil
imports from
Iran
,
taking a much more conciliatory approach to the matter than
China
did a
few days ago.
"We want to take actions to further reduce our 10% dependency as soon as
possible in a planned manner," Jun Azumi said. Japanese crude imports from
Iran
came
to around 10% of its total crude imports in 2010. He said that
Japan
has
reduced its oil imports from
Iran
by
40% over the past five years.
On the second leg of his Asian trip, Geithner said that the
U.S.
appreciates
Japan
's
cooperation in dealing with
Iran
as
the
U.S.
explores ways to cut off
Iran
's
central bank from the global financial system.
"We very much appreciate the support
Japan
has
provided in standing with us and the international community," Geithner
said at a joint press conference, regarding the
U.S.
objective to pressure
Iran
over
its suspected nuclear weapons program. He said that the
U.S.
was
working closely with
Europe
,
Japan
and
other countries to pressure
Iran
.
Geithner later said that
Washington
will
send a team to
Japan
next
week to discuss the
Iran
sanctions.
"We have a range of operational questions we're starting to work through with
them. We're going to send a team here next week to consult in more detail on
the technical questions," Geithner said in an interview with NHK.
Concerns over
U.S.
legislation that would punish global banks that deal with the Iranian central
bank have grown among Iranian oil importers such as
China
,
Japan
and
South
Korea
.
During his trip to
China
earlier this week, Geithner urged officials to greatly reduce imports of
Iranian crude oil, and explained to them a new
U.S.
sanctions policy against countries that don't curtail their purchases.
But it is far from clear whether the Chinese will go along with the sanctions
regime. Faced with
U.S.
initiatives, Chinese officials customarily take months before making their
decision clear. In public, Chinese officials have forcefully opposed unilateral
U.S.
sanctions on
Iran
.
The Geithner-Azumi talks come as Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba
wrapped up a tour of the
Middle East
where
he asked major oil-producing countries, including
Saudi
Arabia
and the
United
Arab Emirates
, to increase oil production. JX
Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., Japan's largest refiner by capacity, said
Tuesday that it has been in talks with Saudi Arabia and a few other oil
producers about possible purchases in case of a ban on Iranian crude.
Azumi and Geithner also took a swipe at
China
,
urging
Beijing
to
let is currency appreciate further.
Azumi said
Japan
will
continue to call on
China
to
make its currency regime more flexible to better reflect its economic
fundamentals, while Geithner later said in the NHK interview that currencies of
major emerging economies -- often interpreted to include
China
--
needed to appreciate further.
"You want to see those currencies continue to reflect the substantial
upward pressure you're seeing in fundamental economic forces that are going to
push them gradually to appreciate and strengthen against the dollar, the yen
and the euro. It's going to have to continue on a sustained basis," he
said.
The two also discussed broader global financial issues, including the ongoing
crisis in
Europe
.
"We agreed that
Europe
itself, as its first step,
should strengthen its crisis firewalls to give a sense of stability to the
market," Azumi said.
Geithner also emphasized the importance for
Europe
of
making its financial backstop strong and credible to markets and praised the
role played by the International Monetary Fund in the region's strategy.
"We are fully prepared to support a more substantial role by the IMF in
the context of supporting, supplementing a stronger European response," he
said. Geithner also said that
Europe
's
leaders "appear to be making some progress in containing" their
crisis.
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