Japan’s prime minister told US President George W. Bush that Tokyo would not send troops to Afghanistan due to opposition from a crucial coalition partner, but would extend a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, a news agency reported yesterday.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda informed Bush of the decision last monthy during talks in Hokkaido, northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency said, citing several unnamed diplomatic sources.
Representatives of the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office could not be reached for comment early yesterday.
Japan, a key US ally in Asia, has been considering deploying troops in Afghanistan on a noncombat mission and sent a fact-finding team to the country in June to assess the security situation and report back to the government.
The New Komeito party — a major partner in Japan’s ruling coalition with Fukuda’s Liberal Democratic Party — raised objections to the proposed mission because of the deteriorating security in Afghanistan, Kyodo said.
Japan’s parliament would need to pass a new law authorizing a deployment in Afghanistan, but the prime minister realized it would be difficult to push legislation through the powerful lower house without the New Komeito party’s support.
The Liberal Democrats and New Komeito together command a two-thirds majority in the lower house of the parliament.
Japanese military ships in the Indian Ocean supported US-led troops in Afghanistan for six years until the political opposition in Tokyo blocked the mission’s extension last year.
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