US, Japan sign accord on troop re-positioning
Dated 24/4/2006
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The United States and Japan have struck a bargain over a plan to realign US forces in Japan, with Japan agreeing to pay USD 6 billion of the USD 10 billion cost, the Japanese defense chief said.
Japanese Defense Minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, told reporters after his three-hour meeting on Sunday with Defense Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, that Japan wanted to have an appropriate sharing of costs in transfering 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam.
Nukaga said that both sides agreed that the Japan-US alliance is important, not only for Japan but also for the region.
The United States had proposed in an earlier round of negotiations that Japan pay USD 7.5 billion, or 75 per cent, of the cost to relocate Marines. Japan had said it would pay about one-third of that amount.
The United States and Japan are discussing the biggest re-structuring and streamlining of the US military based in Japan in decades.
An outline of the overall realignment plan was announced in October and was to be finalized by the end of March. However, it bogged down over details.
Under a mutual security pact, the United States has about 50,000 troops stationed in Japan. The presence includes more than 10,000 Marines, several air bases and the home port for the Navy's 7th Fleet.
