In the Pacific Theatre Southeast Asia will be a crucial component of Bush’s world war. #msg-3542419
-Am
ISN SECURITY WATCH (21/10/04) - Japan has indicated that it might allow the US to establish its Middle East command headquarters there, Japanese media reported on Wednesday after Japanese Defense Agency chief Yoshinori Ono told a Diet session that relocating the headquarters of a US military unit to Japan would not violate the Japan-US security treaty, even if the range of the unit's activity went beyond the Far East. The US had requested that Japan allow it to set up a base there for its Middle East command, which is currently based in Doha, Qatar. However, the existing security treaty between the two countries treaty stipulates that US military forces can use military facilities in Japan only to contribute to the security of Japan and the maintenance of peace and security in the Far East. The "Far East" defined in the treaty includes areas north of the Philippines, Japan, and its surrounding areas, including South Korea and Taiwan. Under the existing treaty, which was signed in 1960, Japan cannot allow the US to establish a base that does not confine its activities to the Far East. Although US troops have been sent to Iraq from Okinawa, Tokyo has claimed it had not known their destinations when they departed. Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said the Japanese government intended to retain the Far East clause in the security pact when negotiating US troop realignment plans. He indicated that Japan would continue to tacitly allow US troops to be deployed from Japan to final destinations beyond East Asia, such as the Middle East. The top bureaucrat made the distinction after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Tuesday that the global context of the Japan-US alliance, as well as the bilateral security treaty, should be taken into account in negotiations over reducing US forces in Japan. "There is a view that the review of US forces in Japan will lead to a change in the security treaty's Article 6, but we will have to ensure its consistency," Hosoda told a regular news conference, referring to the so-called Far East clause. "On the other hand, the United States is engaged in global security operations, and Japan-US cooperation in the global context should be separated from [the context of] the bilateral security treaty…I think they should not be mixed." The government is considering extending the mission for Self-Defense Forces in Iraq and near Afghanistan, Prime Minister Koizumi said on Wednesday. While noting the deployments were based on special time-limited laws, Koizumi said: "Basically, I think Japan will have to continue providing assistance in line with UN resolutions calling for international assistance both over Afghanistan and Iraq." (By Ravi Prasad in Colombo)
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