DEMARCHE TO JAPAN ON SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 000846 SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/TREOTT AND EUR/RPM ACOPE E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/12/2019 TAGS: PREL MOPS EAID AF JA SUBJECT: DEMARCHE TO JAPAN ON SPECIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO AFGHANISTAN REF: A. STATE 31102 ¶B. TOKYO 828 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires James Zumwalt for reasons 1.4(b) and ( d) ¶1. (C) Japan has taken note of requests made by the United States for specific contributions to Afghanistan and is still conducting its own review of how it can best be of assistance to the Afghan people and government, Director General for Middle Eastern and African Affairs Toshiro Suzuki told Charge d'Affaires April 10. Suzuki, who had previously received Ref A demarche during a visit to Washington, D.C. April 3, said that Japan agrees much more is needed in Afghanistan. He reviewed Japan's "extensive record" of contributions to the Afghan people, most recently Tokyo's decision to pay the salaries of Afghan police officers for six months and to attach several MOFA diplomats to a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Suzuki said that depending on the success of the first team, MOFA will study the possibility of sending more personnel to the PRTs. ¶2. (C) With regard to our request for airlift assets, Suzuki said Japan has received this request several times. While telling Charge that Japan's study on the dispatch of such assets is not yet complete, "you must view this realistically." "Sending helicopters will require legislation and a national consensus; now is not the time for this." (NOTE: For further explanation of the political constraints Japan faces with regard to assistance to Afghanistan, see Ref B. END NOTE.) Suzuki said that Japan will continue to provide assistance to enhance security in Afghanistan, but that such assistance will be focused on the police. In contrast, concerning aid to the Afghan military, Suzuki said: "we need to discuss this further, but I sense this will be very difficult as we are banned from exporting weapons and related equipment to militaries abroad; going in this direction is not easy." ¶3. (C) When asked what the United States might be able to do to help the Japanese public to recognize the importance of assistance to Afghanistan, Suzuki urged caution. Japan, he said, is very sensitive to being seen as responding to requests for assistance from the United States, as many seize upon this to assert that Japan lacks its own, independent foreign policy. He cited the visit last summer of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Bobby Wilkes, which was picked up in the Japanese press and made to seem as if the U.S. were coming to Japan with a shopping list of items that Japan was expected to provide. Japan's official response to these stories was that the U.S. had not made a formal request and that Japan and the United States are consulting closely and working together how to cooperate together. ¶4. (C) Suzuki concluded the meeting by reiterating that, "right now, we are studying what we can do to help from various perspectives, and we are not excluding any elements, but what you're asking for now is way beyond our reach." ZUMWALT