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Mr Rudd said that relations with Tokyo remained 'absolutely the core relationship for Australia.' -- PHOTO: AFP
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TOKYO - AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called Japan a 'core' ally, despite skipping Tokyo on his first major foreign tour, and pledged to resolve peacefully a bitter row on whaling.
Since taking over in December, Mr Rudd has ramped up pressure on Japan over its whaling, sending a customs vessel to monitor the Antarctic hunt which is widely reviled by the Australian public.
In an interview published on Wednesday in the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper, Mr Rudd said that relations with Tokyo remained 'absolutely the core relationship for Australia.'
Japan has insisted that whaling is part of its culture and uses a loophole in a global moratorium that allows killing the giant mammals for research.
'I am optimistic about resolving the issue diplomatically,' Mr Rudd told the Japanese-language daily. No English-language transcript was immediately available.
'I know it is a difficult issue to solve. I understand that there are hard-line opinions in Japan, while there are hard-line opinions in Australia and in the international community,' he told the newspaper.
'What we have to do first is to gather facts,' he said, referring to his dispatch of the customs vessel.
A Chinese-speaking former diplomat, Mr Rudd's rise to the post of PM was met with unease in Japan, which is increasingly competing with Beijing for influence.
Japan's concerns were confirmed in the eyes of some observers when Mr Rudd announced he would head this week on his first major overseas trip to the United States, Europe and China - skipping Tokyo, historically Australia's main Asian ally.
Mr Rudd's government has also dropped an initiative launched by Japan's former conservative premier Shinzo Abe to build a four-nation alliance of democracies among Australia, India, Japan and the United States.
'Our new government has reconfirmed the importance of consultation between Australia, the United States and Japan,' Mr Rudd said.
On Mr Abe's proposal, Rudd said: 'I understand that neither India nor the United States are enthusiastic about it and that opinions are split in Japan, too.'
Australia's conservative opposition has accused Mr Rudd of fuelling Japanese concerns about Chinese influence by dropping the four-way alliance. -- AFP
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