Monday, 10 November 2008 00:00by Therese Hart | Variety News Staff
Despite delay caused by budget constraints
THE transfer of 8,000 Marines to Guam is on schedule and the U.S. is committed to completing the relocation of Marines from Japan's Okinawa Prefecture by 2014 as set by Washington and Tokyo, a senior Defense Department official said Saturday in the Japan Times.
"In our meetings, the Japanese government consistently reaffirms that it will complete the Futenma replacement facility by 2014, which will enable us to complete the transfer of the Marines to Guam," said David Sydney, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia.
"This reflects our shared determination to realize the new alliance posture expeditiously and in a manner that strengthens deterrence while reducing the size of the U.S. footprint in Okinawa," he said in a rare weekend statement.
The Pentagon official's statement came days after the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific hinted that the U.S. plan to relocate about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam may take longer to complete than the targeted end of 2014 timeline and be delayed until 2015 or later.
This was disclosed in an extract of discussions made by Pacific Command Commander Adm. Timothy Keating that the Pentagon released Friday. Though there has been speculation about the possibility of a delay, this was the first time a U.S. military official cited it on the record.
In reference to moving the Marines, Keating was quoted as saying that "it'll take a little bit longer to effect."
"We won't be done by 2014, or maybe even 2015," he said.
Keating cited "not insignificant budgetary challenges coming ahead of us" and said "it will cost us a little bit more money than we currently have budgeted." The relocation was projected to cost around $10.2 billion with around $6 billion to be financed by Japan under a May 2006 Japan-U.S. agreement.
Concerns
Local Guam lawmakers continue to voice their concerns regarding the buildup, saying that the local government has been kept in the dark for many months and away from the table at the decision-making policy level.
Sen. Rory Respicio said yesterday that he hopes to push his bill which would create a Guam First Commission that would deal with military buildup issues at the policy making level.
"I don't want to wait until January for the forming of this commission. We've already wasted time because of the Camacho administration's inability to see the benefits of having a concerted Team Guam effort," Respicio said.
Respicio said that given the ambiguous information coming from the military and Washington, President-elect Barack Obama understands Guam's role in the region.
"President-elect Obama is going through a transition right now, but despite that, Guam is still the westernmost strategic location in terms of military presence within this region in Asia. This is why I've been saying that we should leverage that and try to resolve Guam's on-going injustices, such as Guam's unresolved political status…we need to get the best deal out of this inevitable buildup," Respicio said.
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