Japan announces 15.5 mln dollars in new anti-terrorism aid

Japan on Tuesday announced a new set of countermeasures including financial aid of 15.5 million U.S. dollars to fight terrorism in Middle East and African countries, where militant groups like the Islamic State (IS) are known to operate.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that the new measures were part of renewed effort by Japan to combat terrorism in those regions, and support other anti-terrorism initiatives in certain Middle East and African countries, spanning border control, investigation and development of legal systems.

Kishida also told reporters that the foreign ministry here put together the new measures after two Japanese citizens were allegedly killed by the Islamic State militant group recently.

Vice Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama will provide the full details of the countermeasures at a global counter-terrorism conference in Washington, scheduled for later this week, Kishida said.

Kishida, during a visit to Brussels at the beginning of this year, already pledged 7.5 million U.S. dollars to strengthen border control in at-risk countries, aiming at inhibiting the ability of foreign fighters gaining physical access to join extremist groups like the Islamic State.

The Japanese foreign minister also said in Brussels the funding pledged at that time had, in addition, been earmarked to help improve recipient countries capabilities in investigating and monitoring terrorist activities as well as collating and passing on the information to authorities in relevant countries.

Kishida said on Tuesday the aid would be channeled through international organizations to regions affected by terrorism, including countries that share borders with Syria and Iraq, and the latest measures were aimed at boosting the 200 million U.S. dollars Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged in nonmilitary aid to help refugees from Islamic State controlled areas.

As well as increasing people-to-people exchanges with the Middle East, which will include regional leaders being invited here for conferences and information sharing, some of the funds will be used to help countries like Turkey and Jordan to reduce its high unemployment rate, in a bid to curb the unemployed looking to extremist groups for social validity.

Japan also plans to increase its cooperation in the fight against terrorism with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Kishida said.

The announcement of the new set of countermeasures, according to sources close to the matter, is an attempt by Japan to show its unwavering stance towards Abe's repeated commitment of late to never "give in to terrorism."

Abe has been under fire in parliament and from the public recently for originally making the 200 million U.S. dollar pledge to help refugees fleeing from IS-occupied areas, when he was in Cairo, Egypt, as part of a Middle East tour.

The timing of the prime minister's comments have been scrutinized as just days after the pledge was made two Japanese nationals were purportedly executed by IS, with Abe personally being blamed by the militant group for pledging money to be used to support attacks on IS.

The two hostages were subsequently executed by IS within days of each other and Japan threatened with further reprisals. Endi