MEDIA REACTION - BUSH DIPLOMACY - TOKYO

UNCLAS TOKYO 001102 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR I/RF, PA/PR/FPC/W, IIP/G/EA, EAP/PD, R/MR, EAP/J, EAP/P, PM; USTR FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; TREASURY FOR OASIA/IMI; SECDEF FOR OASD/PA; CP BUTLER OKINAWA FOR AREA FIELD OFFICE; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO JA SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION - BUSH DIPLOMACY - TOKYO LEAD STORIES: Wednesday morning's Yomiuri front-paged Prime Minister Abe's meeting Tuesday with visiting Australian Prime Minister Howard, during which they signed a joint declaration concerning security and defense cooperation. ¶1. "Bush Diplomacy Shifting to Dialogue with Rogue States" Washington correspondent Takashi Sakamoto of the top-circulation, moderate Yomiuri wrote (3/14): "The Bush administration is accelerating a shift in its diplomatic stance to dialogue with such 'rogue states' as North Korea and Iran. The nearly complete about-face appears to reflect changing dynamics within the administration, as seen in the resignation of hard-line officials and the rise of pragmatists. Following the first international conference on the stabilization of Iraq held Saturday in Baghdad, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad told journalists that the meeting was businesslike and constructive.... At the meeting, Khalilzad shook hands and exchanged words for a few minutes with the ambassador from Iran, a country with which the US has not had diplomatic relations for nearly 30 years. A senior USG official also visited Syria Monday for the first time in two years, while Assistant Secretary of State Hill, the US chief delegate to the six-party talks in Beijing, invited his North Korean counterpart to the official residence of the US ambassador to the UN, which is located in a luxury hotel in New York, to discuss diplomatic normalization.... Such moves had heretofore not been entertained by this administration, which had stubbornly rejected direct dialogues with rogue states. The Republican Party's defeat in November's midterm elections forced President Bush to change his diplomatic stance, firing Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the top hardliner in the administration. Other hard-line officials, including US Ambassador to the UN Bolton, later resigned." SCHIEFFER