As for Europe, we should welcome the integration that has taken place as the European Union. We should welcome the movement toward the formation of a pan-European framework in the twenty-first century. The enlargement of any region where people are committed to freedom and market economics can contribute to political stability in the international community. It can contribute to the vitality of the global economy.
But the European nations need to take care to prevent their regional integration from becoming an exclusionary economic block. The prosperity the world has enjoyed since World War Two is attributable in large part to the system of multilateral trade. Now, we are setting up the World Trade Organization to maintain that system. And we need to develop a new international consensus about global economic development. Keidanren recently sent a mission to Europe to foster dialogue in the name of broadening ties between the European Union and Japan.
But here again, real improvement in Japan's relations with other nations will hinge on Japan's own efforts.