WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will ask Japan to recommit to the U.S. security pact and Okinawa military bases when she meets Japan's foreign minister next week, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press at the State Department in Washington, January 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)
Clinton will meet Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Jan. 12 in Honolulu to discuss the U.S.-Japan relationship, which has come under strain due to a row over relocating the Marine Futenma airbase on Okinawa island.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the Obama administration's top diplomat for Asia, told a news briefing that Clinton would underscore that military cooperation was a critical component of a broad and healthy relationship.
"We want the Japanese government to support strongly a robust military, and particularly Marine, commitment on Okinawa and elsewhere," Campbell said.
"This is a security alliance at its core, and security issues are important in a complex and changing Asia. We want a very clear set of statements on the part of the Japanese government on the desire to continue to work closely with us."
Clinton's stop in Hawaii at the start of a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea will also feature a speech on U.S. views of Asia-Pacific security at a time when the rise of China is challenging the accepted status quo.
Japan -- which for almost 50 years has been bound in a security alliance with the United States -- has seen relations sour following the election last year of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party has sought to take a more independent foreign policy.
That has been most visible in the dispute over Futenma, a U.S. military airbase since 1945 and one of several American military installations on Okinawa.
The Obama administration wants to move ahead with a plan agreed in 2006 to shift the Futenma base and its approximately 4,000 Marines to a less crowded part of Okinawa. But many local residents say it should be moved off the island entirely, a view Hatoyama backed during his election campaign.
Hatoyama has pledged to decide by May how to proceed on the base issue, which U.S. officials say is part of a broader realignment of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan against a background of China's rising role and an unpredictable North Korea.
Campbell said the Futenma issue should not be allowed to cloud the broader U.S.-Japan relationship, which he said helped to underpin both stability and growth across Asia.
"This alliance for the United States, and we argue for Japan, is indispensable and we need to work closely to sustain its health and vitality," he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to the press at the State Department in Washington, January 4, 2010. (REUTERS/Jason Reed)
Clinton will meet Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada on Jan. 12 in Honolulu to discuss the U.S.-Japan relationship, which has come under strain due to a row over relocating the Marine Futenma airbase on Okinawa island.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the Obama administration's top diplomat for Asia, told a news briefing that Clinton would underscore that military cooperation was a critical component of a broad and healthy relationship.
"We want the Japanese government to support strongly a robust military, and particularly Marine, commitment on Okinawa and elsewhere," Campbell said.
"This is a security alliance at its core, and security issues are important in a complex and changing Asia. We want a very clear set of statements on the part of the Japanese government on the desire to continue to work closely with us."
Clinton's stop in Hawaii at the start of a trip to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea will also feature a speech on U.S. views of Asia-Pacific security at a time when the rise of China is challenging the accepted status quo.
Japan -- which for almost 50 years has been bound in a security alliance with the United States -- has seen relations sour following the election last year of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party has sought to take a more independent foreign policy.
That has been most visible in the dispute over Futenma, a U.S. military airbase since 1945 and one of several American military installations on Okinawa.
The Obama administration wants to move ahead with a plan agreed in 2006 to shift the Futenma base and its approximately 4,000 Marines to a less crowded part of Okinawa. But many local residents say it should be moved off the island entirely, a view Hatoyama backed during his election campaign.
Hatoyama has pledged to decide by May how to proceed on the base issue, which U.S. officials say is part of a broader realignment of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan against a background of China's rising role and an unpredictable North Korea.
Campbell said the Futenma issue should not be allowed to cloud the broader U.S.-Japan relationship, which he said helped to underpin both stability and growth across Asia.
"This alliance for the United States, and we argue for Japan, is indispensable and we need to work closely to sustain its health and vitality," he said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment