Okinawa base not dominant issue of Obama's Japan visit, says US official
Posted: 10 November 2009 0742 hrs

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WASHINGTON: A dispute over the relocation of a key US military base in Japan will not be a "dominant" or "essential" feature of President Barack Obama's visit to Tokyo, a senior US official said on Monday.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who will welcome Obama on Friday, has promised to review a deal under which a new US base would be built on southern Okinawa island, while Washington has insisted Tokyo stick to the pact.

"I don't see the Okinawa base issue being a dominant or essential issue on the visit," said Jeffrey Bader, Obama's director for East Asian Affairs on the National Security Council.

"I don't see this issue as being ripe for resolution or a focus of the visit.

"I think that there will be ongoing discussions beyond the visit during which we will work out the differences."

Washington and Tokyo have been close allies in the post-war era, and the United States has about 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on Okinawa, where their presence has often rankled local residents.

Hatoyama has suggested that the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base, which is in a crowded urban area, may have to be moved off Okinawa altogether, or even away from Japan.

But on a visit to Tokyo last month, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates pressed Japan to quickly move on with a plan to relocate the base to a new area of Okinawa as agreed in a 2006 pact.

Gates said the base move was the "linchpin" of the wider agreement, under which both countries also agreed to move 8,000 Marines to Guam, a relocation to be part-financed by Japan.

White House officials publicly thanked Japan on Monday for working to refashion Obama's schedule after he delayed his departure for Asia by a day to attend Tuesday's memorial for 13 people killed in a shooting rampage at the Fort Hood army base in Texas.

Obama will go into talks with Hatoyama as soon as he arrives from the United States on Friday, following a long flight aboard Air Force One via Alaska. The two leaders are expected to hold a press conference that same evening, officials said.

On Saturday, the president will give a major address on US Asia policy in Suntory Concert Hall in Tokyo, before meeting Emperor Akihito.

Obama will head to Singapore later on Saturday for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum which will be followed by visits to China and South Korea.


- AFP/so