By Stuart Biggs
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's government will hold talks with delegates from 12 developing nations who recently joined or plan to join the International Whaling Commission as the island nation steps up efforts to overturn the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said it will host a meeting in Tokyo on March 3 with landlocked countries Laos, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and others, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The meeting is an attempt to ``gain acceptance for Japan's position regarding the sustainable use of whales,'' the statement said.
Activist groups including Greenpeace say Japan uses aid money to influence voting in the 78-member International Whaling Commission, a claim the Japanese government denies.
Overturning the ban on commercial whaling requires a three-quarters majority if put to a vote at the organization's next annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, in June.
Japan abandoned a plan to kill 50 humpback whales in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica this winter after strong pressure from countries led by Australia and New Zealand. Japan backed down after talks with International Whaling Commission Chairman William Hogarth, in exchange for a ``constructive debate'' on restructuring the organization.
Japan wants the IWC to be ``normalized'' into an organization that monitors commercial hunts, rather than one aiming to eliminate whaling altogether. The organization imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
Angola, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ghana, Micronesia, Palau, Tanzania and Vanuatu will also take part in the Tokyo meeting.
-- Editors: Gregory Turk, Malcolm Scott
March 1 (Bloomberg) -- Japan's government will hold talks with delegates from 12 developing nations who recently joined or plan to join the International Whaling Commission as the island nation steps up efforts to overturn the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said it will host a meeting in Tokyo on March 3 with landlocked countries Laos, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi and others, the ministry said in a statement yesterday.
The meeting is an attempt to ``gain acceptance for Japan's position regarding the sustainable use of whales,'' the statement said.
Activist groups including Greenpeace say Japan uses aid money to influence voting in the 78-member International Whaling Commission, a claim the Japanese government denies.
Overturning the ban on commercial whaling requires a three-quarters majority if put to a vote at the organization's next annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, in June.
Japan abandoned a plan to kill 50 humpback whales in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica this winter after strong pressure from countries led by Australia and New Zealand. Japan backed down after talks with International Whaling Commission Chairman William Hogarth, in exchange for a ``constructive debate'' on restructuring the organization.
Japan wants the IWC to be ``normalized'' into an organization that monitors commercial hunts, rather than one aiming to eliminate whaling altogether. The organization imposed a global ban on commercial whaling in 1986.
Angola, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ghana, Micronesia, Palau, Tanzania and Vanuatu will also take part in the Tokyo meeting.
-- Editors: Gregory Turk, Malcolm Scott
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