July 27, 2010
Washington, July 27 (Jiji Press) -- A senior Pentagon official expressed confidence Tuesday that a final decision will be made on the controversial relocation of a key Marine base in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture before President Barack Obama visits the country in November.
Referring to a Japan-U.S. experts group tasked with developing a specific plan for the base relocation by the end of August, Wallace Gregson, assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, said, "That effort is well under way, and we expect the group to complete its efforts on schedule, allowing for a final political decision on relocation this fall."
In testimony to a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee, Gregson noted that a Japan-U.S. joint statement issued on May 28 designates the Camp Schwab area in Nago, Okinawa, as the relocation site for the U.S. Marines Corps' Futenma air station in Ginowan, also Okinawa.
"I am confident that this issue, so difficult over the last few months and for the last 15 years, is moving toward a resolution, and that we are on a path to have the tangible progress necessary to enable the relocation of Marines to Guam," Gregson said.
The Futenma relocation is part of a broader agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan under which approximately 8,000 Marines are to be repositioned from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam.
(2010/07/28-13:31)
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