Japan and Mekong nations to wrap up summit
The leaders of Japan and Southeast Asia's five Mekong River nations will on Saturday wrap up a summit at which Tokyo has pledged more than 5.5 billion dollars in loans and grants.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has pushed the concept of an EU-style Asian community, on Friday announced loans and grants in excess of 500 billion yen to his counterparts from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
Eighty percent of the overseas development assistance would be in low-interest yen loans, for projects ranging from regional highway links to water infrastructure and technological training, a government official said.
Much of the region along the lower reaches of the 4,800-kilometre (2,980-mile) Mekong River has historically been isolated by war and political turmoil and remains poorer than many other parts of Southeast Asia.
However, Asian giants Japan and China have for years poured aid and investment into the region and are seen increasingly as competitors for influence in the resource-rich area home to more than 220 million people.
The goal of the Mekong group is to boost development through cooperation. But the summit started under a cloud as Thailand and Cambodia on Thursday recalled their ambassadors from each others' capitals.
The neighbours have fought deadly skirmishes since July 2008 over disputed land around a temple. The latest flare-up arose when Cambodia named Thailand's fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra as a government adviser.
Another guest in Tokyo is the prime minister of military-ruled Myanmar, Thein Sein, whose country has been criticised for human rights abuses, including its long detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hatoyama was to meet Thein Sein, Myanmar's first premier to visit Japan since 2003, on Saturday for talks.
The meeting comes days after senior US envoys travelled to Myanmar for Washington's first direct talks with the isolated regime in years -- an overture which Hatoyama said he welcomed, according to the official.
