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Japan may hold off on UN reform
Japan indicated it may be ready to hold off on its bid to win a permanent
seat on the UN Security Council after the proposal was opposed by the United
States, China and the African Union.
Japan had made joining the Security Council a key foreign-policy goal and has been on a joint bid for seats with Brazil, Germany and India as part of the so-called Group of Four or G4. "We are not dead set on pushing for a vote" at the United Nations on reforms, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said. "We will analyze the situation with G4 nations and African countries. We want to carefully consider the situation and decide whether to move toward a vote," he told a news conference. On Thursday, an emergency African Union summit on UN reform refused to drop demands for two permanent veto-wielding seats on an enlarged Security Council. Japan, a major aid donor, had banked on support from Africa and other parts of the developing world to win a seat on the Security Council. Its bid has been strongly opposed by China, which says Japan must do more to show regret for its past aggression in Asia before joining the Security Council, whose makeup reflects the power balance at the end of World War II. China is one of five nations that has veto power on the Security Council, along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States. The United States has backed Japan's candidacy but not the bids of its G4 partners Brazil, Germany and India and has refused to support a deadline of September to decide on the historic changes. On Wednesday, Machimura said he had complained to Washington that its support
for Japan, one its closest allies, had verged on being just "lip
service."
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