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Friday June 23, 7:24 PMJapan, U.S. agree on joint development of ballistic missile defense(Kyodo) _ Japan and the United States formalized an agreement Friday to cooperate on a ballistic missile defense system allowing them to jointly develop a next-generation missile interceptor, the Foreign Ministry said.Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer signed the pact, which allows the two countries to begin the joint missile development in the current fiscal year. Aso and Schieffer also signed an annexed document stipulating Japan will shoulder $1 billion-1.2 billion of the cost of the missile defense system's joint development over the next nine years and the United States will shoulder $1.1 billion-1.5 billion. Aso and Schieffer concluded another document in which Japan reaffirmed the government policy of exempting arms exports to the United States related to the joint missile defense project from Japan's weapons export ban, on condition that they are strictly managed. Japan's "three principles on arms exports," first adopted in 1967, bans exporting weapons to communist countries, those under United Nations sanctions and those involved in international conflict. The government decided in 1976 to refrain from all arms exports. According to the annexed document, the United States will focus on kinetic warhead development and Japan will concentrate on the nose cone and rocket motor. Tokyo and Washington will jointly engage in system design and test-firing. Japan decided to engage in joint research with the United States on missile defense in 1998, after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan that year. In December 2004, Japan announced through the chief Cabinet secretary's statement a relaxation of its arms exports control policy to enable the sale of missile defense components to the United States when joint research proceeds to the development and production stages. The Cabinet decided in December to give the official green light to Japan to proceed with the joint missile development. Japan's move to develop an advanced model of the U.S. sea-based Standard Missile 3 interceptor is a politically sensitive and complicated issue given Japan's pacifist Constitution and strict arms exports controls. |
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