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US, Japan say Okinawa-Guam Marine plan intact

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 21:53 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The United States and Japan said on Friday they remain committed to their plan to transfer 8,000 U.S. Marines from the Japanese island of Okinawa to the U.S. territory of Guam, a move long delayed by a political stalemate in Japan.

The two countries agreed in 2006 to shift the U.S. Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to Henoko, a less crowded area on the island, and also move 8,000 Marines to Guam.

But successive Japanese governments have yet to win support for the 2006 Realignment Roadmap from Okinawa residents, who blame U.S. bases for noise, pollution and crime and are not satisfied with base transfers within the sub-tropical island which is host to about half of the 47,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

Last June, the two allies agreed to drop their 2014 deadline for the transfer and work to complete the transfer at the earliest possible date.

Officials in Tokyo and Washington denied a report by the Bloomberg news agency quoting unnamed U.S. officials as saying the Obama administration had decided to scrap the Guam move in favor of rotating the Okinawa-based Marines through other Asian countries.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba called reporters to a special briefing in Tokyo on Friday night, saying, "The report may generate misunderstanding.

"We are in talks with the U.S. side, with flexibility in our mind, to seek ways to advance the relocation of Futenma airbase and the shift of Okinawa-based U.S. Marines to Guam, while upholding policy of reducing the burden on Okinawa in a timely manner and maintaining deterrent effects," he said.

Gemba acknowledged that "nothing has been finalized" in discussions that have ground on for years over an issue that claimed one Japanese prime minister.

"But I want to tell you that both Japan and the United States still see Henoko as the best site for the relocation of Futenma airbase and no change has been made to a plan that about 10,000 U.S. Marines will remain in Okinawa," said Gemba, who put the total number of Marines on Okinawa at 18,000.

In Washington, Pentagon spokeswoman Leslie Hull-Ryde said "no decisions have been made with regard to possible adjustments to the Guam Relocation Plan" but that "the two governments are now communicating closely and in a flexible manner regarding the way ahead on a number of related issues."

"We continue to support the principles of the 2006 Realignment Roadmap and to pursue a military presence in Japan and the Asia Pacific region that is operationally resilient, geographically distributed and politically sustainable," she said in an e-mail.

Hull-Ryde said the United States was committed to developing Guam as a strategic hub and establishing a Marine Corps presence on Guam.

Several senior U.S. senators last year raised questions about the cost, estimated at more than $20 billion, of building facilities in Guam. Since then, pressure to trim the Pentagon's budget has risen.

While the debate over forces in Okinawa has played out the Obama administration has reached agreements with Singapore and Australia to allow visits of ships or troops on rotation, as part of an overall rebalancing of forces from Iraq and Afghanistan to the Western Pacific.

U.S and Philippine officials held talks on similar arrangements last week. (Reporting By Paul Eckert and Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo; Editing by Bill Trott)