More for defence

Press, 17 July 1980, Page 14

More for defence

Japan would boost its defence budget in the next few years,' a senior’ defence official said in New York. Mr Hisahiki Okazaki, foreign relations director, of Japan’s Defence Agency* said in a “Newsweek” magazine interview that Japan would raise its defence spending from 0.9 per cent of . its gross national product to 1.0 per cent in the next three or four years. There was widespread support in Japan for an increase iri'gtlie ’defence budget. “We are extricating ourselves from?, the pseudoMarxist thinking-which prevailed after the •'Second Wprld War,” he said.- -7 New York. ; . Saudi oil limit The Saudi Arabiain Foreign Minister (Prince Saud Faisal) said his country would maintain its oil production level of 9.5 million barrels a day until the. end of the year.’ “This is an. established policy of the. kingdom,” Prince Faisal said in an interview published by the independent Beirut news-’ paper “An Naliar.” Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporting country, pushed production to. the present rate last year to offset a shortfall caused' by Iran’s anti-Shah revolution.' Iran and other hawkish. members of the Organisation’’of Petroleum Exporting Countries have urged Saudi Arabia to return promptly to its previous production level of 8.5 million barrels a day to offsetan oil surplus on the world market. -—'Beirut.