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ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT : Defence Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday ruled out reopening negotiations on a deal to relocate a US airbase in Okinawa, saying alternatives had proven "unworkable."
"We think we need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated," Gates told reporters on his plane bound for Tokyo.
Although President Barack Obama's administration understands the new government's "desire to review certain policies," the agreement was years in the making and alternative options had already been explored, Gates said.
"We've looked at, over the years, at all these alternatives and they are either politically untenable or operationally unworkable," he said.
Gates' comments came before talks with Japan's new center-left government, which has struck a more independent stance towards the United States and said it wants to review the agreement on the presence of US forces.
Under the 2006 accord, the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base would be closed and a new US base built in a coastal area of Okinawa island by 2014, with about 8,000 Marines transferred off the island to Guam.
But Gates warned that lawmakers in the US Congress might object to moving some US troops to Guam if Japan rejected other provisions of the deal.
"It's hard for me to believe that the Congress would support going forward in Guam without real progress with respect to the Futenma replacement facility," he said.
The US military presence on Okinawa has long angered residents because of aircraft noise and the risk of accidents, and crimes committed by US service personnel have caused friction with the local community.
Gates did say the administration was flexible on possibly shifting the location of a runway in Okinawa under the deal, but he said that was a matter to be resolved between Tokyo and the local government in Okinawa.
"We've indicated there could be some flexibility in terms of location (of the runway)," he said.
Gates, due to arrive in Tokyo later on Tuesday for his two-day visit, is the first member of Obama's cabinet to visit Japan since a center-left government came to power last month, ending a half-century of nearly unbroken conservative rule.
The renewed debate over where to move the base has cast a cloud over a scheduled visit by Obama to Tokyo on November 12-13.
Okinawa, site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, hosts more than half of the 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan.
Gates also was due to visit Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday before heading to Slovakia for a NATO meeting of defense ministers on Friday.
He said he expected to discuss with his counterparts in Japan and South Korea economic and other possible assistance in support of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government has announced it would no longer carry out a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of the war effort.
Hatoyama’s party, which has spoken out against abetting "American wars," had long opposed the refueling mission and the premier has suggested Tokyo will find other non-military means to contribute to the NATO-led effort.
- AFP /ls
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