Nudged by the United States, Japan will host multinational sea exercises in October as part of an initiative to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, even though analysts say the move could hurt talks with North Korea, an unspoken focus of the drill.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Tokyo would host the drill, the latest in the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) launched last year to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons-related materials.
Japan will urge China and South Korea, which unlike Japan are not among the 15 core PSI members, to take part in what will be the sixth maritime PSI drill, a ministry official said.
The initiative has angered North Korea, now in a stand-off with Washington and its allies over its nuclear ambitions.
Tuesday's announcement comes at a time when Japan is trying to set talks with North Korea on the fate of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang decades ago and is considering whether to resume stalled talks to establish diplomatic ties.
It also follows US pressure on Tokyo to play a bigger role in the initiative, launched by US President George W. Bush.
"If you want to put this in the context of Japan getting past the wartime constitution it is Japan emerging as a serious player," a US official said last week, referring to Tokyo's efforts to stretch the limits of its pacifist constitution.
Comments
Comments are closed.