The following are excerpts from editorials in newspapers from around the world:Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, on the Japan-US summitIn his first visit to the United States since taking office, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday met with President George W. Bush. Abe offered an apology to the president about the Japanese military’s treatment of wartime “comfort women,” and Bush accepted it.

Abe likely sighed in relief. But this exchange is very peculiar. Shouldn’t the prime minister be saying sorry to the former comfort women? Abe doesn’t exactly have a good track record for making statements sympathetic to the victims. He hardly blinks when criticised at home, yet when things get heated in the United States, he immediately turns around and apologises. ...

Perhaps Abe’s apology worked to cool off the current criticism in the United States. But the bigger problem of how Japan should deal with its own history has not been really resolved.

Abe and Bush emphasised the irreplaceable nature of the Japan-US alliance, and at their joint press conference, both wore matching lapel badges symbolising it. Such showmanship is fine, but from now on, it is substance that counts.Lietuvos Rytas, Vilnius, Lithuania, on the riots in EstoniaEstonia was always few steps ahead of its Baltic neighbours. In Soviet times, when many Lithuanians used to obey the occupant regime, Estonians disrespected it. They were the first to establish a popular front and declare Estonian laws above Soviet ones...

Estonia is often called a leader among Baltic states, and it proved this again last week when Moscow launched a campaign of hysteria. They have a prime minister who is capable of making decisions during difficult times, and police capable of restoring order even in such extreme situations.

After the riots broke out in Tallinn, Lithuania failed to express support to Estonian people and government. Some Lithuanian politicians even said that Tallinn probably made a mistake by moving the statue.

They probably forget that, in Christian countries, people are buried in cemeteries, not on street squares, where the statue of a Soviet soldier reminded everyone of the occupation and the brutal Soviet regime.

Moscow speaks of respect to those who died in the Second World War. But what does rioting and looting by a drunken crowd have in common with respect? ...

The riots in Tallinn were provoked and fuelled by Moscow. It was an attempt to test the Estonian government and find out how many Russian speaking Estonian citizens can be manipulated from abroad. ...