Japan to provide patrol boats to Yemen

Japan is studying a plan to provide Yemen patrol boats for free to help with efforts to fight piracy off Somalia. Japan\'s government is considering the transfer as part of official development assistance aimed at building peace, Japan\'s (NHK WORLD) reported. Yemen is located across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. The government plans to send officials to the Middle East nation to discuss the timing of the transfer after the country\'s security situation becomes stable. The plan to offer patrol boats to Yemen has emerged after Japan effectively eased its ban on exporting arms late last year. The only case in which Japan has so far offered patrol boats to a foreign country was in 2007, when three vessels were given to Indonesia in an exception to the export ban.