Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura vowed Thursday to urge the European Union to keep bilateral and multilateral issues separate when deciding whether to issue visas to Myanmarese officials seeking to attend international events.
Machimura made the promise in a meeting here of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. He was referring to the boycott by ASEAN economic ministers of the sixth Asia-Europe Meeting being held Friday and Saturday in Rotterdam over the Netherlands' refusal to issue a visa to a Myanmarese minister.
Machimura vowed to raise the issue during scheduled talks with EU leaders later this week during his stay in New York, saying the European Union "is mixing up bilateral and multilateral matters," a Japanese official said.
The EU agreed to Myanmar's ASEM accession and thus should not deny the minister a visa, even though some European nations separately take exception to the country.