Australia PM hails Japan alliance despite whale rift

JAPAN: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Thursday pledged to work for a strong alliance with Japan, but the two sides agreed to disagree in a bitter rift over whaling.

On his first visit to Japan since taking office in December, Rudd and his counterpart Yasuo Fukuda called for continued talks to reach a free-trade deal and improve cooperation on global issues including climate change.

"Australia and Japan have a comprehensive, strategic security and economic partnership," Rudd told a joint news conference.

"Our partnership is not just based on common interests. It is also based on common values and enduring friendship," he said.

"We are both democracies, we are both open economies, we are both strong allies of the United States."

Australia's conservative opposition had criticised Rudd, and Japanese officials were privately livid, when the premier visited Beijing, but not Tokyo, on his first major international tour as leader.

Rudd, a former diplomat who is fluent in Mandarin, has countered that his left-leaning government has dispatched numerous senior ministers to Tokyo. During a working lunch after an hour-long summit, Rudd and Fukuda agreed that "constructive engagement with China is important" for the stability of the region, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

China and Japan, Asia's largest economies, have uneasy relations dating back to the legacy of Japanese imperialism, although Fukuda has pushed efforts for reconciliation. But Rudd stood firm on his opposition to Japan's whaling expeditions, which kill hundreds of the mammals each year in the Antarctic Ocean despite protests from Australia and New Zealand.

He and Fukuda agreed to disagree on whaling, which Japan argues is part of its culture.

"We agreed to engage in cool-headed discussions so that differences in our positions on this issue will not undermine good bilateral relations," Fukuda said.

Rudd said that he and Fukuda "agreed that you can have disagreement between friends" and that they "will be working in the period ahead diplomatically in search of a solution on this question."

Tokyo, Thursday, AFP