Sophie Solomon, the United Nations officer in charge of civilian-military coordination in Mali in western Africa, says the Self-Defense Forces would be more than welcome to join the U.N. peacekeeping operation in the conflict-riven country.
"There is need for a lot of infrastructure" to be built in Mali, Solomon said in a recent interview, referring to the Ground Self-Defense Force's achievements conducting similar work in South Sudan.
In line with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiative to be more militarily proactive in making peaceful international contributions, officials in the Defense and Foreign ministries have been exploring the possibility of sending the SDF on more peacekeeping missions, according to government sources familiar with the discussions.