Hillary Pushing Global Response:Mrs. Clinton calls for coordinated economic response

TOKYO-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for coordinated action to revive the global economy on Tuesday and invited Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso to meet President Barack Obama at the White House next week.Making Japan her first destination as secretary of state, Clinton also offered Aso's ailing government reassurance on the solidity of the U.S.-Japan alliance and on U.S. concerns about Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago.It is unclear whether her gestures will help Aso, whose unpopular government is grappling with the worst recession in a generation and whose finance minister resigned on Tuesday after having to deny he was drunk at a G7 news conference.In a sign Washington may be hedging its bets on the Aso government, Clinton also met the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa.Speaking at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone, Clinton said the two discussed "the economic challenges facing our two countries and the world as a whole, which demand a coordinated global response.""As the first- and second-largest economies in the world, we understand those responsibilities," she said.The two also signed an agreement to move 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan's southern island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, a transfer long in the works and that a U.S. general this month said might be delayed beyond its 2014 target date."This agreement ... reinforces the core of our alliance: this mission to ensure the defense of Japan against attack and to deter any attack by all necessary means," Clinton said, alluding to the nuclear umbrella the United States extends over Japan.On a week-long Asia visit that will also take her to Jakarta, Seoul and Beijing, Clinton made time to visit Tokyo's Meiji shrine, have tea with the empress of Japan and meet the families of Japanese abducted by North Korea decades ago.
By Arshad Mohammed

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