In case anyone doubts ultimate French (contrarian) position
(35% gold in EMU?) here is another French response..
France's Chirac says Japan must solve own problems
06:28 a.m. Apr 04, 1998 Eastern
LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - French President Jacques Chirac, taking the
opposite tack to U.S. President Bill Clinton, said on Saturday Tokyo
should be left in peace to work out how to overhaul its struggling
economy.
''It's not for others to tell Japan what it should do, to be handing out
advice,'' Chirac told Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on the
sidelines of a Europe-Asia summit here.
''When a pilot is doing some difficult navigation, it is important not
to disturb him,'' Chirac's spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna, quoted him as
telling Hashimoto.
His remarks contrasted starkly with a renewed call from Clinton on
Friday for bolder policy in Japan to boost the economy after successive
stimulus packages devised by Tokyo which have largely failed to impress.
''We need to be both respectful and firm in urging the Japanese to take
a bold course,'' Clinton said in Washington.
Chirac, in London for a two-day meeting of leaders from the 15 European
Union countries and 10 Asian states, took a cautious tack in a bilateral
meeting with Hashimoto on Saturday.
Japan's lacklustre economic performance was thrust back into the
limelight at the summit here, as leaders from both trade regions
addressed the crisis which has snowballed across Asia since Thailand
buckled and turned to the International Monetary Fund for help in July.
Japan, which had already taken a diplomatic bashing from the United
States at a Group of Seven meeting here in february, seized on Chirac's
words for comfort.
A Japanese official told reporters after the bilateral meeting that
Chirac had highlighted the need for Japan to pull the rest of Asia out
of troubles by solving its own problems. REUTERS
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. |
