US, Japan agree overhaul of security ties http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-05-01T204236Z_01_N01183841_RTRUKOC_0_US-JAPAN-USA.xml
Mon May 1, 2006
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Japan agreed on Monday to bolster their military alliance and made final a comprehensive plan to streamline U.S. forces in Japan while improving missile defense and intelligence-sharing.
Top U.S. and Japanese defense officials and diplomats also pledged to work together to halt the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea and voiced a shared concern about a lack of transparency in China's military buildup.
"The ministers stressed the imperative of strengthening and improving the effectiveness of bilateral security and defense cooperation in such areas as ballistic missile defense, bilateral contingency planning, information sharing and intelligence cooperation," said in a joint statement.
The two countries spelled out final plans to restructure the 50,000 American troop presence in Japan, moving some 8,000 Marines will be moved to Guam from the Japanese island of Okinawa, where their presence has caused frictions.
They also pledged close coordination in the development and deployment of ballistic missile defense systems and agreed that U.S. Patriot PAC-3 anti-missile systems would be deployed in Japan as early as possible.
The agreement was announced after talks between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of the United States and Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defense Minister Fukushiro Nukaga of Japan.
The two allies vowed to work to convince Iran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related activities and cooperate fully with the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The ministers also called for "concerted U.N. Security Council action" on Iran.
North Korea must return to stalled six-party nuclear talks promptly and unconditionally and "dismantle its nuclear programs in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner," the joint statement said.
SHARING BASES
The two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia -- agreed in September that Pyongyang would dismantle its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security assurances. But the last talks ended in November without progress.
Japan's Nukaga, voicing a concern expressed in Washington as well as Tokyo, called for China to be more transparent about the rapid military modernization Beijing has been carrying out on the back of surging economic growth.
"It is very important to work to increase the transparency of military capabilities of China to ensure a sense of security among neighbors," he told reporters.
The core project in reorganizing the 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan, part of the Pentagon's global strategy to make its forces more flexible, is the transfer of 8,000 Marines and 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to Guam. The two countries agreed last month that Japan will fund $6.09 billion of the estimated $10.27 billion cost of the move.
Monday's meeting approved detailed plans for a new coastal facility to replace the U.S. Marines helicopter base at Okinawa's densely populated Futenma and agreed to work on a plan to return to Japan as many as six other American bases.
Under a policy of "co-location" of Japanese and U.S. military headquarters on a single base, Japan's ground forces headquarters will be moved in 2012 to Camp Zama, home of the U.S. Army command and control operations, the statement said.
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