By Kim Jae-won
TOKYO - The latest International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank Group meeting in Tokyo generated more talk about who wasn’t there than who was.
China, the main engine driving global capitalism, refused to send its top economic policymakers to the gathering of finance ministers and central bankers amid a bitter row with Japan over a chain of East China Sea islands.
But Bahk Jae-wan, the finance minister of Korea, also embroiled in a territorial dispute with Japan, had no idea that he wasn’t going to see his Chinese counterpart Xie Xuren in Tokyo.
When asked to comment on Xie’s absence in a meeting with Korean journalists ahead of the meetings, Bahk’s response was stunning.
``Xie isn’t coming? I did not know that,’’ he said, this coming hours after IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde confirmed Xie’s no-show in a news conference and pleaded for China and Japan to settle their differences for the sake of stability in global finance.
Ahead of his departure to Japan, Bahk had vowed to represent Korean interests and be more assertive in international discussions to match the country’s larger role in global finance and economy.
However, his cluelessness about the drama going on between Japan and China at the Tokyo meetings, with regional tension hitting a new peak, makes it worth questioning whether he ever was really plugged in.
In scrambling to Bahk’s defense, finance ministry officials took the kindergarten route and blamed somebody for forgetting to tell the minister.
However, Bahk’s mental lapse is inexcusable, especially considering that the difficult relationship between Korea and Japan recently cost the country a reliable financial safety net.
The two nations decided earlier this month to let their expanded currency swap arrangement expire at the end of this month amid a bitter diplomatic row over Dokdo, the easternmost Korean islets Japan says it has historical claims over.