# Japan to strike deal aiding relief flights Tokyo to provide safe refuelling stop



## jacksparrow (14 May 2009)

Source: Globe and Mail
DATE:  2009.05.14 

CAMPBELL CLARK OTTAWA Japan and Canada will clear away a diplomatic hurdle that has in the past tangled efforts to deliver aid to Asia when Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon visits Tokyo today. 

Defence officials found themselves scrambling for a pit stop when a Canadian Forces C-17 loaded with aid for victims of Myanmar's cyclone Nargis tried to deliver the goods last May, because they couldn't get a quick approval from friendly Japan to touch down at one of their airports. 

Today, Mr. Cannon will ink a deal with Japan to ensure Canadian Forces planes on humanitarian missions will get a quick okay to use a Hokkaido airport for its stopovers. 

Although it's not the sort of deal that will be used every day, it can ease logistic difficulties if Canada seeks to send emergency aid planes to East Asia, as it did after the 2004 tsunamis in Sri Lanka. 

After last year's cyclone Nargis in Myanmar, planners needed not only to organize aid and a plane, but also make routing plans, including parking the jet in Bangkok, before Myanmar's military junta even agreed to let foreign deliveries into the country. 

Cargo planes flying to Asia often need a refuelling stop, and safe, strategically located Japan, with advanced airports that can accommodate huge aircraft, is viewed as ideal. 

The move to clear away the diplomatic irritant is part of efforts on both sides to revive Canada's largely neglected relationship with Japan, which boasts the world's second-largest economy. Mr. 

Cannon's visit today, after a five-day mission to China, follows Trade Minister Stockwell Day's visit last month. 

The Conservatives, whose first-term foreign policy focused mainly on Canada-U.S. relations and Afghanistan, have broadened their trade-and-relations efforts since last year, and have taken a new interest in Asia, sending ministers on repeated missions to India, China, and now Japan. 

In Prime Minister Stephen Harper's first term, the government's interest in Japan was mainly in pressing Tokyo to negotiate a free trade agreement. The Japanese, sensitive to opening some specific markets and ticking through a series of short-lived prime ministers, have resisted high-level talks on a broad trade pact. 

But Mr. Cannon will make trade ties and economic exchanges a key priority for meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone. 

The two sides will also discuss international efforts to stabilize the problem region of Afghanistan and Pakistan - now garnering international efforts as a joint worry. 

Canada has troops and aid projects in Afghanistan, but has resisted calls to boost aid to Pakistan; Japan does not conduct combat missions abroad, but recently pledged $1-billion in aid to Pakistan. 

Mr. Harper made a brief side trip to Tokyo last July after the summit of G8 leaders in northern Japan, for meetings with then-prime minister Yasuo Fukuda. 

Japan's Emperor Akihito will make a rare visit to Canada in July, in a sense reliving the cross-Canada trip he took as the 19-year-old Crown Prince in 1953, on his way to Queen Elizabeth's coronation.


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## 40below (18 May 2009)

Maybe a dumb question, but why don't they use Mirage? It's not that much further from Trenton (6,800 miles versus 6,400 unless Google Earth is failing me.)


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## SeaKingTacco (18 May 2009)

That kind of assumes a couple of things like:

1. What the SOFA says we can use Mirage for.

2. That you can fly a Great Circle Route.  Look at the countries you would have to cross.  Now think about that carrying dangerous cargo.

That is just for starters.


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