Thursday, 6 March 2008

Ishiba offers Japan's support for Cambodia's peacekeeping

AOL News
2008-03-05

TOKYO, March 5 (Kyodo) - Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba told his Cambodian counterpart Tea Banh during their meeting on Wednesday that Japan is ready to help the Cambodian military in its involvement in U.N. peacekeeping operations, Japanese officials said.

"If there is anything Japan can do to support it, we are willing to do so," Ishiba was quoted as telling Cambodia's national defense minister, who doubles as deputy prime minister. But he did not elaborate on what kind of assistance he meant.

Tea Banh thanked Japan for sending Self-Defense Forces troops to the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Cambodia in 1992 and said his country has been sending mine removal experts to Sudan since two years ago as part of a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation, the officials said.

Noting that Cambodia was the first country to which Japan sent troops as part of a U.N. operation, Ishiba praised Cambodia for evolving into a country that now dispatches its own troops for such operations to another country, they said.

It is the first time Japan and Cambodia have held ministerial defense talks.

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