Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura departed Tuesday for Pakistan to deliver a letter from Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf asking him to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
During his four-day stay in Pakistan, Sugiura is scheduled to meet with government officials to voice Japan's support for the country's response to the U.S. request that it cooperate in combating terrorism, Japanese government officials said.
He will urge Pakistan to step up calls on Afghanistan's Taliban authority to hand over Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to the U.S. after Washington named him the prime suspect in masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they said.
Sugiura will also explain the details of Japan's decision last week to provide Pakistan with 4.7 billion yen in emergency aid to help the country support the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Tuesday vowed to support Pakistan, especially for helping Afghan refugees flee the country in the event of U.S. retaliation.
Tanaka told Pakistani Ambassador to Japan Touqir Hussain during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry that Tokyo supports Pakistan's political decision to cooperate with Washington in fighting against the terrorists, a ministry official said.
Hussain asked for Japan's financial support, saying Pakistan faces serious financial difficulties because it already houses 2.5 million Afghan refugees and that more have flooded the country since the attacks.