Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Defense Agency Director
General Fukushiro Nukaga left Tokyo on Sunday for a top security
meeting with their US counterparts in Washington.
The May 1 meeting, aiming to finalize an implementation package
for US military realignment in Japan, will also involve US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld.
Japan and the United States have agreed on April 23 to share the
cost for moving 8,000 US Marines from Okinawa to Guam, with Tokyo
paying US$6.09 billion, or 59 percent, of the US$10.27 billion. The
two recently also resolved the tough issue of relocating the Marine
Futemma Air Station within Okinawa, thus paving the way for the top
security meeting.
Previous disagreements on the cost issue and others have kept
the two nations from meeting the March 31 deadline to settle the
whole implementation plan, as decided in October 2005.
The two alliance are expected to nail down the overall cost
sharing plan in the meeting. A senior Pentagon official revealed on
Tuesday that Tokyo would shoulder 26 billion dollars or more for
the whole implementation package, provoking complaints from some
Japanese officials.
Besides attending the security meeting, Aso will also hold talks
with Rice to discuss Iraq situation, Iranian and Korean Peninsula
nuclear issues, according to Japan's foreign ministry. Aso will
also meet with US Vice President Dick Cheney.
Meanwhile, Nukaga may also meet separately with Rumsfeld to
discuss revising the guidelines for the bilateral security alliance
and both countries' troop deployments in Iraq, Kyodo News said.
After leaving the United States, Aso will visit Belgium and
Lithuania. According to the Japanese foreign ministry, Aso will
hold talks with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) Secretary General on Thursday.
The foreign minister will also meet with Belgium Prime Minister
Guy Verhofstadt, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,
as well as Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Prime Minister
Algirdas Brazauskas before returning to Japan on May 7.
(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2006)
