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NATO calls for backup in Afghanistan

An Afghan woman washes her family's clothes inside a tent in Mazar-e-Sharif, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, yesterday. PHOTO: AP

The head of NATO called yesterday for Japan's support for efforts to quell insurgency in Afghanistan amid intense debate in Japan about how to contribute to global security.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urged closer ties between the NATO and Japan, the world's second-largest economy.

His visit comes as Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda struggles to push through legislation to resume an Indian Ocean naval refueling mission in support of US-led operations in Afghanistan.

"I would hope that Japan ... has not yet reached the limit of its possibilities in the political sense of participating in the actual operations in Afghanistan," Scheffer said in a speech in Tokyo.

Fukuda's government was forced to call home the ships last month after the opposition, which controls one house of parliament, refused to support an extension of the mandate authorizing the mission.

The opposition argues that officially pacifist Japan should not be part of "American wars" that are not authorized by the UN Security Council.

Instead, opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa has said Japan should be able to join the UN-backed International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO's peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Scheffer said he hoped to see debate "on what Japan could do more [of] in Afghanistan under the banner of the United Nations, under the banner of ISAF."

More than 50,000 international troops mainly operating under the NATO-led peace-keeping force are helping the Afghan government in its battle against resurgent Taliban extremists.

But the NATO chief also said he understood Japan's caution about how far to deviate from its official pacifism.

"We make it very clear that these are sensitive national issues. They are for Japan alone to resolve," he said.

Japan's Constitution says that the country forever renounces the right to wage war.

Japan sent troops to Iraq on a reconstruction mission but the forces were protected by soldiers from allied nations and returned home last year without firing a single shot.

The NATO chief was due to meet separately with Fukuda, Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura later yesterday as part of a three-day visit.

In his speech, Scheffer stressed the need for stronger relations between Japan and NATO.

"In the 21st century, NATO is becoming more and more important for a nation like Japan," he said. "Because we are basically defending the same universal values."

"I can assure you as a secretary general of NATO that all the 26 allies of NATO are very much interested in strengthening the bonds between Japan and NATO for the security of all our people's," he said.

Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates headed to Scotland late on Wednesday for talks on Afghanistan amid growing trans-Atlantic tensions over NATO allies' failure to provide promised troops and equipment to the international security force there.

Gates and defense ministers from NATO countries involved in Afghanistan will meet for two days in Edinburgh to discuss the shortfalls and map a strategy to persuade other allies to do their part.
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