Japan considering sending troops to EU international missions

Japan is considering sending Self-Defense Forces (SDF) personnel for the first time to international missions of European Union troops, with an eye to doing so under an envisioned permanent law on the SDF dispatches overseas, a Japanese government source said Tuesday.
The plan to send the SDF troops to EU international peace and cooperation operations would be a different framework from UN peacekeeping operations joined by SDF members, (Kyodo) news agency quoted the source as saying.
The envisioned SDF dispatch is likely to be discussed in a meeting among senior officials of the Japanese foreign and defense ministries with EU representatives in Tokyo in the first half of next week, the source said.