Report: Japan says top-level working group on future of US base suspended
By APTuesday, December 8, 2009
Report: Japan says talks on US base suspended
TOKYO — Talks on the relocation of a major American military base have been suspended, deepening a deadlock between the United States and Japan, Japanese media reported Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said a high-level working group convened to discuss the move has been suspended and no date for a restart had been set, the Kyodo news agency reported.
“We are now waiting to see whether we should hold the discussions again,” Okada said without elaborating. A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment.
The relocation of the Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, a major U.S. base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, is at the center of a dispute between Tokyo and Washington. Japan and the United States agreed in 2006 to relocate the base to a site farther north. But Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has put the deal on hold and indicated the relocation site could be changed.
The working group involving Okada, Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa and U.S. Ambassador John Roos was set up in early November. It has met twice. Kyodo said talks on the future of the base made little progress.
Okada suggested last weekend a decision on whether to abide by the 2006 pact may not be made by the end of the year, as Washington had hoped.
Many Okinawans want the base closed and its functions moved off the island altogether. They say it poses a threat to the safety of the people who live near it, and have complained of base-related crime and environmental issues.
Hatoyama, who took office in September, has expressed support for that position, although Japan’s previous government agreed with the United States that a new facility would be built on Okinawa.
The United States has about 47,000 troops stationed in Japan under a mutual security pact. Most of bases are on Okinawa.
To lighten Okinawa’s load, Tokyo and Washington have agreed to move about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam by 2014, but the U.S. military says that plan cannot move forward until Futenma’s replacement facility is finalized.
