Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday his government will decide on a mission for Japan in postwar Iraq after taking a hard look at reports from a fact-finding delegation expected to leave in a few days.
Japanese lawmakers approved a landmark bill in July authorizing ground troops to help with reconstruction and non-combat support for US-led forces in Iraq, but plans for a dispatch were put on hold amid concern about mounting casualties.
The Japanese leader said yesterday his government was getting ready to send a fact-finding mission to Iraq that would lay the groundwork for a decision on what kind of contribution Japan will make. Media reports have said a team of officials is set to leave on Tuesday.
"As soon as preparations are complete, the government will send a fact-finding team," Koizumi said during a television appearance. "Once we get a grasp of the conditions on the ground, we will know what kind of mission would be appropriate for the Self-Defense Force."
The prime minister cited "humanitarian aid or reconstruction aid" as possible roles for Japan's military, known as the Self-Defense Force. He also implied that nonmilitary personnel might figure into his country's contribution.
Koizumi said his government would make a decision "after setting aside a certain period of time" to study conditions in Iraq. A commitment is widely seen as unlikely until after national elections that Koizumi's conservative party is reportedly planning to call in November.
The prime minister has long advocated more active participation in international peacekeeping by Japan's military, which operates under tight restrictions imposed by its post-World War II pacifist constitution. He pushed through a law authorizing Japanese warships to provide logistical support for US-led forces in Afghanistan.
But polls indicate a majority of voters are wary about sending Japanese personnel into a danger zone. The legislation authorizing the contribution of ground troops limits their activities to "non-combat areas" -- a distinction dismissed as meaningless by critics of the plan.
In an effort to reconcile demands by Washington for help with concerns about deteriorating security on the ground, military planners in Tokyo are reportedly considering an initial contribution of Japanese military transport aircraft, which would fly supply runs to US bases in Iraq from Kuwait or Qatar.
Speaking on a TV forum, Koizumi brushed aside a suggestion that his administration was being pressured to act by US officials.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion