(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-09-13 14:25

Kyodo -- Japan's diplomacy with Democratic People's Republic of Korea and its alliance with the United States will remain unchanged and solid, despite a change in Japan's top leader, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said on Wednesday after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation.

US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer (R) speaks with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo September 12, 2007. [Reuters]

"Policies will be decided under the new prime minister and new Cabinet but Japan's diplomacy will not be changed in a major way," Machimura told reporters shortly after the announcement of Abe.

Machimura also said, "Japan-US relations will not be shaken at all just because of the sudden resignation."

Touching on the Japanese Diet's debate on whether to extend the anti-terrorism law, Machimura said there will not be a major change in the plan to compile a new law to continue the Maritime Self-Defense Force's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean to support the US-led anti-terror operatiovns in and around Afghanistan.