Abe trumpets Iraq support ahead of
US visit By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - In a bid to demonstrate its firm
commitment to reconstruction efforts in Iraq,
Japan recently decided to extend its air force
unit's deployment for two years and invited many
Iraqi leaders, including the prime minister, from
the war-ravaged country to visit.
These
recent steps by Tokyo come ahead of Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe's first visit to Washington for talks
with President George W Bush since taking office
last September. Abe is to
make
the visit on April 26-27. Iraq and North Korea are
expected to top the agenda at talks between the
two leaders.
To be sure, stability in Iraq
- and the Middle East as a whole - would be in
Japan's interests, as the world's second-biggest
economy imports the huge bulk of its oil from the
volatile region. And resource-hungry Japan makes
no secret of its strong appetite for a decent
slice of the oil pie in oil-rich Iraq.
But
it is common knowledge that Japan felt the
necessity to commit troops and aid for the sake of
its alliance with the United States, although
Japanese officials shy away from openly
acknowledging this. In fact, the Japanese
government, in defiance of strong domestic
criticism, sent troops to Iraq on a reconstruction
mission after the US invasion to maintain the
solid Japan-US security alliance.
Japan
has been one of the staunchest supporters of the
US, its most important ally, in the war in Iraq.
Under a special law enacted in the summer of 2003,
Japan sent Ground Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops
on a reconstruction mission to southern Iraq.
Although Japan withdrew its ground troops from
Iraq last summer, its airmen are still flying
supplies and personnel between Kuwait and Iraq.
The air force began airlifts from its base
in Kuwait to select airports in Iraq in early 2004
using C-130 transport aircraft, initially to
support Japan's Ground SDF troops in the southern
Iraqi city of Samawah. After the army's withdrawal
from Iraq last July, the air force expanded the
airlifts to cover airports in Baghdad and Irbil.
The 2003 law, which authorizes the
deployment of Japanese troops for reconstruction
aid in Iraq, was to expire this summer. A
government bill to enable a two-year extension has
been submitted to the Diet (parliament). Under a
separate special law enacted in 2001, Japan also
has dispatched Maritime SDF vessels to the Indian
Ocean to refuel US and other coalition ships as
part of efforts to assist anti-terrorism
operations in Afghanistan. Although some
within the Abe government proposed only a one-year
extension of the mission for Iraqi reconstruction
in consideration of mounting domestic and
international criticism of the Bush
administration's Iraq policy, the two-year
extension eventually prevailed on the ground that
setting such an earlier time frame for a pullout
could have negative effects on Japan-US relations.
The Democratic Party of Japan objected to
a two-year extension of the air force mission at a
time when the Bush administration is facing
mounting pressure from Congress, which is now in
the hands of Democrats, for the withdrawal of US
forces from Iraq. But with Abe's Liberal
Democratic Party-led coalition in control of both
houses of the Diet, the bill to revise the 2003
special law is expected to be enacted before the
current session ends in mid-June.
Abe will
also be able to tell President Bush of progress
being made on the realignment of US bases and
forces on Japanese soil. An agreement was reached
last May aimed at reducing strains on Japanese
communities that host bases while maintaining the
US presence in Japan. The pact will further cement
the bonds between the close allies through
increased integration of their military operations
and pave the way for Tokyo's greater involvement
in US-led operations, not only in Asia but
globally.
The Abe government recently
submitted to the Diet a bill aimed at promoting
the realignment agreement. The bill, if enacted,
will provide billions of yen a year in subsidies
to local governments, although provision of
subsidies will be linked to their cooperation and
actual progress in implementing the realignment
projects. The bill is expected to be enacted as
early as this month. The proposed law would expire
in March 2017. Many local governments remain
reluctant to host new US military facilities or
drills under the realignment agreement, and some
have expressed outright opposition.
The
realignment will be high on the agenda at the "two
plus two" meeting of Japanese and US foreign and
defense chiefs, scheduled for May 1 in Washington.
The meeting, originally expected in January, had
been delayed partly by the fuss created by
Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma's remarks
that embarrassed Washington. Kyuma said in January
that the US should "stop being so bossy" about the
issue of realigning US bases on Japanese soil and
also described the US invasion of Iraq as a
"mistake".
After visiting the US, Abe is
to tour five Middle East nations - Saudi Arabia,
the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt
- before returning to Tokyo on May 3. In Kuwait,
Abe plans to visit the airmen deployed there for
the airlift mission in Iraq.
Topping the
agenda at his talks with Middle East leaders will
be Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and
Iran, as well as bilateral economic cooperation,
including in the oil sector.
Before
leaving for Washington, Abe met with his visiting
Iraqi counterpart, Nuri al-Maliki, at his official
residence in Tokyo on Monday and promised to
continue to support reconstruction efforts in the
war-torn country. Maliki expressed his gratitude
for Japan's support, and the two leaders agreed to
build a ''long-term strategic partnership'' to
strengthen political and economic ties.
The Japanese and Iraqi leaders agreed on
the provision of a maximum of 57.7 billion yen
(US$510 million) in new yen loans to support
waterworks projects in Basra and reconstruction of
power supplies in Kurdish areas. The Iraqi premier
said that while security in some areas remains a
problem, he hopes for the early resumption of
investments by Japanese businesses in the safer
areas.
There have been other meetings
between Iraqi and Japanese leaders. Last month,
Japan invited Iraqi Vice President Tariq
al-Hashimi to Tokyo. Separately, a group of 13
Iraqi parliamentary members and other influential
figures, led by the minister in charge of national
reconciliation, was also invited to Tokyo for a
seminar on ways to promote reconciliation among
Iraqi people.
Japan has also taken a high
profile in Iraq's reconstruction. Tokyo hopes its
generous aid pledges - $5 billion in total, with
$1.5 billion in grants and the remaining $3.5
billion in soft loans - will be rewarded with
access to Iraq's extensive oil reserves.
Japan's aid is the largest by any single
nation except the US. The $1.5 billion portion has
already been disbursed, and the $3.5 billion soft
loans are to be fully allocated by the end of this
year, with the focus likely to be on energy-sector
developments. Japan has written off about $6
billion, or 80%, of the $7.6 billion debts owed to
it by Iraq.
During his upcoming Middle
East tour, Prime Minister Abe will be accompanied
by some 100 Japanese business leaders, including
Canon Inc chairman Fujio Mitarai, who concurrently
serves as chairman of the Japan Business
Federation, the nation's most powerful business
lobby, and top executives from energy-related
firms and trading houses.
Hisane
Masaki is a Tokyo-based journalist,
commentator and scholar on international politics
and economy. Masaki's e-mail address is
yiu45535@nifty.com.
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