TOKYO, 11 June 2003 — US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage encouraged Japan yesterday to “get out of the stands” and send troops to Iraq to help with its reconstruction.
Armitage, who was in Japan to attend a donors’ meeting for Sri Lanka, held separate talks with Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda at the prime minister’s office.
Following the meeting with Fukuda, Armitage told reporters Japan paid “a huge amount of money” during the 1991 Gulf War, but Japan’s profile was very low as it failed to send troops to the US-led forces.
“It’s a bit as if Japan were paying to watch a baseball game on the side of the stands,” Armitage said.
“You cannot play at all unless you are on the baseball diamond,” Armitage said.
“I am hoping that the nation will decide to get out of the stands and onto the playing field.”
Japan, a key Asian ally of the United States, paid more than $10 billion to help the US-led forces carry out a military campaign after Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
