日本首次向联合国维和部队供应军火

Japan is to supply arms to UN peacekeepers for the first time, marking another step in its increasingly assertive foreign policy under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

日本将首次向联合国维和部队供应军火，此举标志着安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)首相主政的日本在外交政策上越来越自信。

Under the plan, approved on Monday by the Cabinet Office, Japan is to provide South Korean forces in South Sudan with about 10,000 rounds of rifle ammunition without charge, to meet a shortage identified by troops deployed in the eastern state of Jonglei, where clashes bewteen rival factions have left at least 500 people dead and hundreds wounded.

根据内阁府周一批准的这项计划，日本将向驻南苏丹的韩国部队免费提供大约1万发步枪子弹，以满足部署在南苏丹东部琼莱省的部队所报告的弹药不足的情况。南苏丹军队不同派别之间的冲突已导致至少500人丧生，数百人受伤。

Over the past 20 years, Japan has dispatched thousands of self-defence force and police personnel to UN missions in Cambodia, Mozambique, Timor-Leste and Haiti, while ranking as among the biggest donors to the UN’s peacekeeping budget. But it has never before supplied arms to the military of another country through the UN, said a government official.

过去20年期间，日本向联合国在柬埔寨、莫桑比克、东帝汶和海地的任务派遣了数以千计的自卫队员和维和警察，并且是联合国维和预算的最大贡献者之一。但据一名政府官员表示，日本此前从未通过联合国向另一个国家的部队供应军火。

The decision comes as Japan seeks to distance itself from its post-second world war pacifism, committing last week to building a stronger military to counter perceived security threats, including an increasingly powerful China. Under Mr Abe, prime minister since December 2012, Japan is to lift its defence spending for the first time in 11 years, boosting purchases of drones, stealth aircraft and amphibious vehicles.

作出这一决定之际，日本正寻求与二战后的和平主义拉大距离。上周日本承诺要建设一支更强大的武装力量，以抗衡其眼中的安全威胁，包括日渐强大的中国。在2012年12月上台的安倍首相的领导下，日本将在11年来首次提高国防支出，调拨更多资金购买无人机、隐形飞机和水陆两栖战车。

According to the new national security strategy, Japan envisions a more “active” peacekeeping role in Asia that would involve closer military co-operation with allies such as the US, South Korea and Australia, as well as a formal “reconsidering” of a ban on weapons exports.

根据新的《国家安全保障战略》，日本设想在亚洲扮演更加“积极的”维和角色，包括与美国、韩国以及澳大利亚等盟友开展更紧密的军事合作，同时有可能正式“反思”武器出口禁令。

In response, China’s foreign ministry complained that the Japanese documents “rehash stale ideas, hype up ‘China threat theory’, play up regional tensions and make excuses for arms expansion in the disguise of maintaining its security and regional peace”.

中国国防部对此表示不满，称日方的文件“老调重弹，鼓吹‘中国威胁’，渲染地区紧张气氛，打着维护自身安全与地区和平的幌子为其扩充军备制造借口”。

Japan and China have been locked in a long dispute over a chain of tiny islands in the East China Sea, with tensions rising last month when Beijing announced an air-defence zone over a wide area including the islands.

日本和中国围绕东中国海一个小小的岛群陷入了长期纠纷，上月中方宣布划设大片的防空识别区，将争议海岛纳入其中，此举加剧了紧张。

Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have been strained too. Mr Abe and Park Geun-hye have not held a formal meeting since the South Korean president was elected in February because of Seoul’s unhappiness at what it sees as Japan’s insufficient remorse regarding its colonial rule over its neighbour. The two nations are also engaged in a separate territorial dispute over the Seoul-administered Dokdo Islands, known as Takeshima in Japan – a small set of rocky outcrops in the Sea of Japan.

日本和韩国之间的关系也存在一些紧张因素。韩国总统朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)自今年2月当选以来，至今未与安倍正式会晤，原因是在韩方眼中，日本对当年对朝鲜半岛殖民统治的悔意不到位，这令韩方不满。两国还围绕韩国管理的独岛(Dokdo Islands)——日本称竹岛(Takeshima)——陷入领土纠纷。该岛是日本海一组小小的岛礁。

Since taking office, Mr Abe has made it clear that he wants to loosen the terms of Japan’s anti-war constitution to allow its forces to fight in defence of its allies.

安倍自上任以来就一直表明，他有意推动放宽日本反战宪法的条款，使自卫队能够协防盟友。

In a television programme aired on Sunday, Mr Abe described revising the constitution as his “career goal”, adding that he hoped for co-operation from opposition parties to reach the requisite two-thirds majority support for such a move in both houses of parliament.

在周日播出的一档电视节目中，安倍将修宪形容为自己的“职业生涯目标”。他还表示，他希望反对派政党给予合作，使修宪议案在国会众参两院得到所需的三分之二多数支持。