Japan eyes deal with oil-rich Gulf

TOKYO – Japan plans to begin talks with six oil-rich Gulf Arab states this year toward a free-trade agreement in the aim of securing stable energy supplies, officials said yesterday.

Tokyo plans to open negotiations with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – which together provided about 75 per cent of Japan’s oil imports in 2005. Japan has been widening efforts to break down trade barriers with its trade partners with a flurry of bilateral free trade deals.It has signed free trade pacts with Singapore and Mexico and reached similar broad agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.It is also negotiating with South Korea, Indonesia, Chile and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a whole, and is moving toward talks with Australia, India, Switzerland, Vietnam and South Africa.Japan has increasingly been competing over scarce energy resources with China – which dispatched its vice foreign minister to Iran’s capital Tehran for weekend talks on the crisis.Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran – another important source of oil for Japan – arrived in Tokyo yesterday on a three-day visit expected to focus on the nuclear crisis.-Nampa-AFPJapan has been widening efforts to break down trade barriers with its trade partners with a flurry of bilateral free trade deals.It has signed free trade pacts with Singapore and Mexico and reached similar broad agreements with Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.It is also negotiating with South Korea, Indonesia, Chile and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as a whole, and is moving toward talks with Australia, India, Switzerland, Vietnam and South Africa.Japan has increasingly been competing over scarce energy resources with China – which dispatched its vice foreign minister to Iran’s capital Tehran for weekend talks on the crisis.Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister of Iran – another important source of oil for Japan – arrived in Tokyo yesterday on a three-day visit expected to focus on the nuclear crisis.-Nampa-AFP