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在美中关系、中日关系都出现紧张之际,美国副总统拜登20日在华府一项演说中对重大盟邦日本表达温暖,指美国改善与中国关系的努力必须「透过东京」来确定。
在美国总统欧巴马预定于纽约会见日本首相菅直人(Naoto Kan)三天前,拜登强调对日关系在美国亚太政策中的基本特性。
拜登在「美国-日本协会」年会的演说表示,「美国必须正确把握与新兴中国之间的关系。坦白地讲,如果不通过东京,我真不知道怎么搞定北京。」
拜登说,日本在解决朝鲜半岛核危机、地区安全、该地区面临的社会和政治上的挑战上有至关重要作用。他说,「我不知道,如果没有我们在亚太地区的伙伴日本,这个关系要怎么运转?」
拜登在华府举行的美日关系年会中说,日本对解决朝鲜半岛危机、其他区域安全问题以及社会和政治挑战,至关重要。
他说,「在我看来,我们最近有时太过急于专注在某一种极其重要的关系上」,这是指中国而言,虽然他宣称欧巴马与中国接触不断获有进展。
与此同时,他表示,美国人民也必须了解,美国对日关系是美国在亚太地区能够有所成就的「关键」。
中日双方正因为钓鱼岛撞船事件而陷入关系紧张。美国与中国之间的关系从过去半年的冷淡中,似乎逐渐回暖中。
美国副国务卿史坦伯格也在另一项华府的演讲中对中日关系出现倒退表示遗憾。他说,「中日两国维持良好关系符合美国利益,也对这一地区的其他国家有利」。
英文:
Biden: US-China ties must go through Tokyo
(AFP) – 1 day ago
WASHINGTON — US Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that American efforts to improve ties with China must "go through Tokyo" in a warm message to key US ally Japan as it faces rising tensions with Beijing.
Three days before US President Barack Obama is set to meet Prime Minister Naoto Kan in New York, Biden stressed the fundamental nature of relations with Japan in US Asia-Pacific policy.
"There is an emerging relationship that we have to get right between the United States and China... frankly, I don't know how that relationship can be made right other than going through Tokyo," Biden said.
"I don't know how it works without our partner in that part of the world."
Biden told the US-Japan Council's annual conference here that Tokyo was crucial to solving the crisis on the Korean peninsula, other regional security issues and social and political challenges.
"It seems to be that we sometimes of late have been too quick to focus on one relationship which is critically important," he said, referring to China, though arguing that Obama's outreach to Beijing had been making progress.
At the same time, Biden said the American people also had to understand that relations with Japan were the "linchpin" of what Washington could get done in the region.
Earlier Monday, Japan said it regretted China's decision to suspend high-level exchanges over Tokyo's arrest of a Chinese boat captain in disputed waters, urging Beijing not to let the spat ruin their relationship.
Beijing on Sunday had threatened "strong counter-measures" after Japan extended the detention of the boat captain accused of intentionally ramming his trawler into two Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea.
Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said that the flare-up was "unfortunate" in light of efforts between China and Japan to repair relations in recent years.
"Good relations between China and Japan are in our interest. It's in the interest of everybody else in the region," Steinberg said.
"The important thing is to sustain dialogue and to recognize that when you have complex situations like this, that engagement is the best way to move forward," Steinberg said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Japan seized the captain near an island chain claimed by both countries as well as Taiwan -- an area with rich fishing grounds as well as possible oil and gas deposits.
Obama is due to meet Kan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, on a day when he is also due to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
The United States stations nearly 50,000 troops in Japan, which it is obliged to defend under a security treaty. |
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