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| Afghanistan |
| Japan - No Military support, just job training for former Taliban soldiers. |
| 2009-10-15 |
| Japan has told the United States it will end a naval refuelling mission backing its war in Afghanistan, a month before President Barack Obama visits Tokyo, a top defence official said Thursday. The formal confirmation to the White House and Pentagon, days before Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits Japan, is part of efforts by the new centre-left government in Tokyo to recalibrate its security ties with Washington. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took office last month, has said he wants "more equal" relations with the United States and that he opposes plans for a new US military air base to be built on southern Okinawa island. Hatoyama, whose party in opposition spoke out against Japan abetting "American wars," has for months said it would not renew a naval refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean that was first launched in 2001. On Wednesday, Parliamentary Defence Secretary Akihisa Nagashima, the third-ranking defence official, told the White House and Pentagon that the mission would not be renewed when its legal mandate expires in January. "I explained that the special law will expire," Nagashima said in Washington after meeting Obama's National Security Adviser James Jones and Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy. The news comes as Obama is reviewing his strategy in Afghanistan, where recent elections were seen as widely flawed, and is weighing how many more American troops to deploy to the bloody conflict. Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, which ended more than half a century of almost unbroken conservative rule, has signalled a renewed emphasis on Japan's pacifist values and on civilian aid over military efforts. In Afghanistan, Hatoyama has proposed new, non-military support for Kabul, such as job training for former Taliban soldiers. Hatoyama, an admirer of Obama -- who visits Japan on November 12-13 -- has also said that he wants to work more closely with Washington on combating climate change and on nuclear non-proliferation. The naval mission has supported US and other NATO forces in the Afghan conflict with refueling and logistical support, but it has drawn scorn at home from left-leaning politicians now in Hatoyama's ruling coalition. The change of power in Tokyo has also revived debate on another long-simmering issue, the 47,000-strong US military presence in Japan that started with the superpower's post-World War II occupation. A flashpoint has been the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, located in a crowded urban area, where residents have long complained of aircraft noise, the danger of accidents, and occasional frictions with service personnel. Under a 2006 agreement which Japan, under a conservative government, struck with the United States's former George W. Bush administration, the base would be closed but replaced with a coastal facility to be built by 2014. Hatoyama has in the past said he wants the replacement facility to be built outside Okinawa or even outside Japan, a proposal also favoured by two minor parties whose support he needs in the upper house of the Diet legislature. The issue will be a key focus of the October 20-21 visit by Gates, the first by a US cabinet member since Japan's elections, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell on Wednesday in Washington. Morrell said the United States remains committed to the 2006 agreement, under which thousands of US troops would also be moved to Guam. "We think these are very complicated agreements that are beneficial to both of our countries, and to our long-term relationship, and to the security situation in the region," he said. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |