Japan welcomes new U.S. policy on Afghanistan, but rules out more aid

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TOKYO, Dec. 2 Kyodo -
Japan's top government spokesman said Wednesday that the country welcomes the
new U.S. strategy on Afghanistan announced by President Barack Obama but added
that Tokyo has no intention of increasing aid despite a growing view that
Washington may demand that it do more.
''The government welcomes'' the new policy of sending an additional 30,000 U.S.
troops to Afghanistan by mid-2010 and starting to withdraw forces in July 2011,
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said at a news conference immediately
after Obama's televised speech.
But Hirano denied that the Japanese government will increase its planned aid
for Afghanistan in the wake of Obama's speech.
The new U.S. strategy would help ''create an environment so Afghanistan can be
stabilized economically and politically through synergy effects'' with Japan's
new package, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters in the evening.
Earlier in the day, he also said in a speech that he believes Obama is hoping,
in the long term, to help stabilize Afghanistan through civilian aid instead of
by military force.
Japan has already announced that it will extend up to $5 billion in civilian
aid to Afghanistan over five years from 2009.
The aid package focuses on providing vocational training for former Taliban
insurgents and training for Afghan police officers to ensure security in the
country.
''Support for Afghanistan is indispensable for containing terrorism and each
country in the international community should offer all the support it can,''
Hirano said later at another press conference, adding that Japan has adopted a
package that ''it has never offered before.''
But some members of the Hatoyama government are worried that Washington,
Tokyo's closest ally, would push Japan for more aid.
Obama said his new strategy would cost the United States $30 billion this year,
while calling on its allies to step up their commitments to the war in
Afghanistan.
''It is very likely that the Obama administration will call for additional help
from Japan due to concerns that (the war in) Afghanistan could become something
like what happened in Vietnam or Iraq,'' Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said
in a speech in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Playing down such a view, Hirano said that ''We are now in the process'' of
implementing what has already been announced.
Japan is also barred from sending troops to the country due to its pacifist
Constitution. It is also planning to withdraw Maritime Self-Defense Force
vessels next January from the Indian Ocean, where they are currently engaged in
a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations.
==Kyodo
2009-12-02 23:13:20