US-Japan talks on base row stalled: Tokyo
December 9, 2009
* Japanese foreign minister says Washington-Tokyo relations ‘are somewhat shaky’
* Unclear when next talks will be held
TOKYO: US-Japanese talks on resolving a festering row over an American military base have been put on hold until Tokyo clarifies its position, Japan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday. Relations between the two sides “are somewhat shaky”, Katsuya Okada told a press conference, adding that “it shouldn’t be that way”. The open question of where to relocate an Okinawa island Marine Corps airbase has soured Washington-Tokyo ties since a new centre-left government took power in Japan in September.
Unclear: Both sides have agreed to regular talks on the issue, but no new date was set after the most recent meeting on last Friday, Okada told reporters. “We don’t know when the next talks will be held,” he said, adding however that the talks “have not ended”.
The conservative Sankei daily has reported that US Ambassador John Roos, in his talks with Okada and Defence Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, “turned red with anger and raised his voice” over slow progress in resolving the dispute. Japan’s centre-left government under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has rankled US officials by announcing a review of a 2006 pact under which the airbase would be moved from a city area to a coastal region of Okinawa. The US side is pushing for the existing plan to be implemented, saying it needs the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Station to be relocated as planned.
Hatoyama has left open the possibility of moving the base off the island or even out of the country, to lighten the burden on Okinawa, which hosts more than half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan. He has said he would like to meet US President Barack Obama at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen to discuss the issue. Former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, who worked under former president George W Bush, warned in a Tokyo forum on Tuesday, “I really worry that an agreement that took 10 years to negotiate might unravel.” afp
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