By Xinhua
Washington : The US government Thursday urged Japan to retain two ships in the Indian Ocean to continue their refuelling mission that support the US-led forces in Afghanistan.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in the briefing that the US government officials would talk to the Japanese counterparts about the issue when Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda visits the US later this month.
“We would like for those refuelling to continue and we will be talking to the Japanese,” Perino said.
According to the order issued by Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba at 3.00 p.m. (0600 GMT), Japan’s Maritime Self-defence Force (MSDF) supply ship Tokiwa and destroyer Kirisame in the Indian Ocean will return to Japan Thursday midnight.
The Japanese ships have supplied fuel to the US-led forces in Afghanistan under the special anti-terrorism measures law first passed after the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.
The law was extended for two years in 2003 and was extended for one year in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
Since the Japanese opposition camp, which controls the Upper House of the Diet, has vowed that Japan should not take part in “American wars”, the government failed to get a new bill passed to replace the special anti-terrorism measures law that expires on Thursday.
According to Japan’s official statistics, the MSDF has provided about 490,000 kiloliters of oil to vessels from 11 countries in 794 missions, and more than 80 percent of the oil went to US warships.
“They have played a very important role,” said Perino. “We would hope that they would continue that.”