[War] Japan/UK: "Pacific Ties"

[Ian Martell]

"Pacific Ties"
Foriegn Secretary Clive Hollstadt, United Kingdom
Foriegn Minister Kintaro Takezo, Japan
Sept 26th 2006

Foriegn Minister Kintaro Takezo was escorted with little pomp and ceremony,
as was often the case in these Minister to Minister meetings, to the office
of his counter-part Foreign Secretary Hollstadt and when he was shown in and
his aides departed to be enterained by the Minister's aides bowed as to an
equal. "Secretary Hollstadt, a pleasure to meet you," he said with affable
reserve before moving to shake the Briton's hand. His voice was to the
British ear at least virtually without accent.

Takezo was glad to have been given this duty to perform, he'd lived in
England for nine of his fifty-five years, first as the child of a Japanese
diplomat and his wife, then as a student at Cambridge and had visited what
must have been a few dozen times since his graduation, the latest was to see
his son Kinichi begin his studies at Cambridge last fall, so this assignment
was a mix of buisness and pleasure for the Minister.

"Minister Takezo," replied Hollstadt. "Welcome to London." Hollstadt
himself was an Oxford man, and this was his first time meeting any
member of the Japanese government other than Tokyo's ambassador here
in London. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, thank you," Takezo said with a nod and took his seat. "Has your
government made any progress with the French and Italians on the subject of
the arms embargo. I was suprised by their sudden turn around as I imagine
was most of the world."

"They're not saying much," replied Hollstadt. "I think they were
planning their big announcement before we made our own proposal to the
EUP, and now they are stuck and don't know how to respond. They denied
our proposal but will look two-faced if they follow thru with their own."

Takezo sipped his tea and sat back. "I see, yes, they stand to lose a great
deal of face if they push their plan. Given the increased tensions between
Taiwan and China could that situation not be used as leverage to give your
government time to work with its partners in the EU to hammer out a
compromise. Say to hold off the decision until such time as the tensions
decrease so as not to seem to be choosing sides," Takezo asked delicately.

"We've already been making some subtle hints to the French and the
Italians, but we will come out and say it to their respective Foreign
Ministries if it is required," said Hollstadt as he folded his hands
together on his desk. "Right now the tension between Taiwan and the
mainland are purely political. Introducing advanced European weapons
into the mix could create instability. Both want our technology. If
China gets it, they could start to think they could take Taiwan by
force. If Taiwan gets it, they might think they can declare
independence and fight off the mainland.

"Right now I'm more concerned about China. While Taiwan has asked for
an arms deal, I doubt they'll get it. My government has no interest in
selling weapons to Taiwan in this situation, and I've heard nothing to
indicate the rest of the Union wishes to either."

Nodding Takezo said. "Then if there is anything Japan can do to assist in
keeping your arms out of their hands we would be please to do so."

"It's not that we don't want to sign an arms deal with China, it's
that we don't want to do it NOW," emphasized Hollstadt. "We have hopes
that the new administration will bring about changes in China that
would allow us to justify a closer military relationship with them.
This situation with Taiwan threatens regional and global stability."
And in particular, trade. It would be poor forum to admit so, but
money was a chief concern for the Eckley government. A loss of trade
with China would put a pinch on the EU, and the disruption of shipping
from Asia as a whole due to a major war would be far worse. "If there
is one thing that you can do, it is try and convince the Taiwanese
President to follow a quiet road. Now is not the time for Taiwan to
rattle the independence saber."

"I agree," Takezo said. "And I will speak to my government about pursuing a
resolution to this situation more vigourously."

"If I may move us forward onto a related matter, as you know my government
has recently begun the process of amending the constitution to legtimize the
Defence Forces and to allow peacekeeping and actions of mutual defence.
While this will give us the legal right to take part in these missions there
remains the question of is our knowledge sufficient to manage them. With
that in mind we are hoping to partner with nations such as the UK to help
develop our exprience in these matters in two ways. The first would be to
have exprienced members of your armed forces come to Japan and evaluate our
troops and offer suggestions on how we might do things differently to
improve, the second is to send some of our officers and NCOs to observe
British operations in the field and learn from their experiences with those
units."

Hollstadt suppressed a smile. Upon hearing about Japan's intention to
amend their constitution, one of the first thoughts Downing Street
had had was to involve them in the Afghan peacekeeping mission. This
was an excellent turn of events.

"Of course. You have our full cooperation and support. We can begin
sending advisors from the Army, RAF and Royal Navy to Japan at once
too observe and advise the JSDF at once. Your are also free to send
observers to see first-hand our peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan."


Takezo nodded. "Excellent, I will forward your words to the Defence Agency
and I expect they will quite quickly be in touch with the MoD about the
details. Also, I heard on the way over, there is to be a new offensive in
Afghanistan and there is some question of Japanese airlift support?"

"Mobility is a key advantage in war," said Hollstadt. "The Taliban are
a foot army. Helicopters and airplanes give us a key tactical and
strategic advantage over them. The more of that kind of support we can
have, the greater we can use that advantage."

"I see," Takezo said. "My government has put forward the proposal of
deploying elements of the 1st Helicopter Brigade to Afghanistan to provide
such support. This force would consist of 10 UH-47J Chinook helicopters and
the maintenance and logistics staff to support them. However I should warn
you that this force under our current laws must be approved by the Diet
before it can be deployed which does leave the timing of this deployment at
the mercies of the opposition who may try to delay it in committee. I hope
this is understood for nothing more than the realities of internal politics
and not a lack of commitment to the efforts being made in Afghanistan."

The Foreign Secretary did indeed understand. Japan had never been a
international military contributor in the combat sense, their
constitution forbade it, yet this offer of transport helicopters was
still greater support than some of Europe's major military powers were
offering.

"I understand, Minister. And we are grateful."

Takezo nodded half-bowing in place. "As are we Minister, your personnel will
be of great help to the JSDF's transformation. Now if the military matters
are closed, I would like to discuss your government's proposal in reguards
to FOCs. Originally we were opposed to the idea with more than 2000 of our
merchant vessels flying FOCs, but a recent meeting on maritime issues in
South Korea has woken us up to how far behind we are handling maritime
affairs and have come to see the value of such an effort. As such we will be
putting forward a bill to echo your tarrifs but must respectfully ask a
favour of your government: to give us one year of exemption from the
tarriffs you are levying against our ships under FOCs in order to make the
change easier for those companies who are working to comply but need time to
enact them."

"Parliament has already decided to give ten months of grace period for
all comapnies to reregister their vessels under a non-FOC flag. Will
that suffice?"

"Perfectly," Takezo said.

Actions:

1> Agree to a partnership between the Japan and Britain. Britain will send
advisors to Japan to help with the combat readiness of the JSDF, Japan will
send JSDF personnel to get first-hand experience along side British units in
Afghanistan.

2> Japanese government draws up a deployment bill allowing ten CH-47Js and
air and service crews to be deployed to Afghanistan and is submitted to the
Diet by the PM. LDP members of the Defence Comittee are asked to help smooth
its passage and expect DPJ opposition.

3> Japan joins the US-UK initiative against FOCs putting a bill before the
Diet to echo the British tarriffs to take effect in 10 months like the
British ones.

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