South Asia News
Japan passes aid package for Afghanistan
Nov 10, 2009, 3:44 GMT
Tokyo - The Japanese government on Tuesday passed an aid package worth 5 billion dollars over the next five years to help reconstruction in Afghanistan.
The package is to replace the military aid for the war in Afghanistan, which involves a controversial refuelling mission in the Indian Ocean.
The decision came ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and US President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to visit Japan Friday. The new Japanese government said it would not extend the refuelling mission, in which the country's navy assists in refuelling US and other nations' vessels in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan.
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan has been long opposed to the refuelling mission, saying it lacked UN approval and, therefore, Japan, which is banned from participating in foreign military missions by its pacifist constitution, should not participate.
The refuelling mission was conducted on the basis of an anti-terrorism law passed in October 2001 and since then has been extended several times by previous governments led by the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.
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