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Hashimoto to lead Japanese delegati



Hashimoto to lead Japanese delegation to Myanmar 

Kyodo, Hong Kong 24 November 1999. Former Japanese 
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto will lead a delegation 
of former diplomats, civil servants and economists to 
Myanmar on Tuesday, the Hong Kong-based Far Eastern 
Economic Review said Wednesday. 

The visit will come just after a planned meeting between 
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and the chairman
of Myanmar's junta, Gen. Than Shwe, on the sidelines of
 the Association of South East Asian Nations
summit in Manila on Monday. 

The Obuchi-Than Shwe dialogue will be the first meeting 
between a senior world leader and the Myanmar junta chief 
since 1988. 

But Japanese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saadaki Numata 
was quoted as saying Hashimoto is not going to Myanmar 
as Obuchi's senior foreign policy adviser. 

According to the magazine, which carries the report in its issue 
due Thursday, Hashimoto's visit is being
organized under the auspices of the Nippon Foundation. 

Still, the Japanese initiatives are interpreted by at least one 
Japanese scholar as underlining Japanese concern over 
China's growing influence in Myanmar, the magazine said. 

And another source was quoted as saying Tokyo is considering
resuming direct investment and aid to Myanmar. 

A spokesman at the Japanese foreign ministry said the planned 
meeting between Obuchi and the Myanmar general will take a 
'slightly difference of approach' than that taken by the West. 

'We share the same concerns about human rights and democracy, 
but don't want to shun dialogue' with the government of Myanmar, 
the spokesman was reported as saying. 

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