Apr 28 07:11 PM US/EasternWASHINGTON, April 28 (AP) - (Kyodo) — Wallace Gregson, nominee for assistant secretary of defense for Asia and the Pacific, said Tuesday he sees the cost-sharing arrangement between the United States and Japan to pay for the relocation of U.S. forces in Okinawa to Guam as "equitable and appropriate."
Gregson, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general, expressed the view in a prepared testimony for a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing to consider his nomination. He is expected to win Senate approval for the senior Pentagon post.
He said the Japanese government "understood the strong desire of Okinawa residents for the relocation of forces from Japan to Guam to occur rapidly and recognized that this move -- which it explicitly sought -- would not happen anytime soon without substantial investment on its part."
To soothe local discontent over the concentration of U.S. bases in Okinawa, 8,000 of some 18,000 U.S. Marines in Okinawa and their 9,000 family members will be moved to Guam by 2014, with Japan footing $6.09 billion, or 59 percent, of the estimated $10.27 billion cost through grants, investments and loans.
Gregson served in Okinawa as the commanding general of III Marine Expeditionary Force, commander of the Marines Corps Bases, Japan, and commander of the Marine Forces, Japan.
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