Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius agreed Monday the two countries will closely monitor economic and financial policies to be carried out under the new administration of the United States, a Finance Ministry official said.
Miyazawa held separate bilateral meetings in Tokyo with Fabius and Spanish Economy Minister Rodrigo Rato a day after finance ministers from the Asia-Europe Meeting countries ended two-day talks in Kobe.
During the weekend, the ASEM ministers expressed concern over how a U.S. economic slowdown might impact ASEM members. Miyazawa and Fabius shared the view that the global economy is improving as a whole and underlined the need to maintain this trend by closely monitoring U.S. steps to deal with its economic slowdown, the official said.
Meanwhile, Miyazawa and Rato hailed the outcome of the ASEM talks, which emphasized the importance of further Asia-Europe cooperation in economic and financial areas under intensifying economic globalization, the official said.