May 31 11:05 AM US/Eastern(AP) - SINGAPORE, May 31 (Kyodo) — Japanese Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba asked U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday to secure transparency when calculating costs that Japan would shoulder for the relocation of 8,000 U.S. Marines from Japan's Okinawa Prefecture to Guam, Japanese officials said.
Photo: Defense Minister Shigeru IshibaMeeting on the sidelines of an international security confab here, Ishiba told Gates that Japan needs to know how the United States estimates the costs involved so Tokyo can fulfill accountability, according to the officials. Gates replied that makes sense, they added.
Japan and the United States have agreed that Japan will shoulder up to $6.09 million of a total of $10.27 million in the estimated cost to help build various infrastructures such as barracks, houses, water supply and sewage facilities for Marines and their families. But Japan's opposition parties have said the U.S. calculation is too high.
Ishiba and Gates confirmed the steady implementation of a 2006 bilateral accord on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, the officials also said.
The accord includes the relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in the densely populated central Okinawa city of Ginowan to Nago in the same prefecture. But talks have been stalled between Japan's central government and municipalities in Okinawa over the plan to construct an airfield to relocate the U.S. base.
Gates thanked Japan for resuming operations to refuel ships participating in U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in the Indian Ocean and Ishiba replied Japan will continue to cooperate for international peace and stability, the officials said.
Ishiba also met separately with French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie and discussed China's growing military power, and exchanged views with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang Hee about the situation on the Korean Peninsula with regard to North Korea's missile programs, the officials said.
Posts
