Japan's supply ship departs for Indian Ocean on fuel supply mission

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-11-10 11:35

TOKYO -- Japan's supply ship Towada departed early Monday from Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean to support the US-led antiterrorism operations, said reports from the southwestern city of Hiroshima on Monday.

Ariake, a destroyer with a displacement of 4,550 tons from Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, will join the 8,100-ton supply ship in waters off Kyushu of southwestern Japan, and the two ships are expected to arrive in the Indian Ocean in three weeks.

Under a temporary one-year law, the refueling mission of the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) in the Indian Ocean is to expire on January 15, 2009.

As the ruling and opposition camps are currently at odds in the Diet as to whether to extend the temporary law, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has voiced his determination on various occasions to continue the refueling mission.

At an annual review held at Air Self-Defense Force Hyakuri Base in Omitama, Ibaraki Prefecture in mid October, Aso said that as a member of the international community, Japan will not "choose to withdraw from the mission."

He also made clear his resolve at a lower house session last month, saying the refueling mission is to Japan's benefit.

According to the statistics from the Joint Staff Office of the defense ministry, Japan's MSDF vessels have provided up to 500,000 kiloliters of fuel to vessels in the Indian Ocean from 2001 to this September.