Gates: Change in Futenma plan unacceptable

Gates: Change in Futenma plan unacceptable
Kyodo News Service
Posted : Friday Jan 4, 2008 12:39:41 EST

TOKYO — Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in November that the United States will not accept any partial changes in the contentious plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture, sources close to bilateral ties said Friday.

Gates made the remarks Nov. 16 at a luncheon in Washington attended by Fukuda and President Bush, dismissing Okinawa’s demand that the current plan to build a relocation site on the coast of Nago be redesigned and the facility be moved offshore, they said.

Fukuda promised to “steadily” implement the relocation in line with a road map agreed on bilaterally in May 2006, according to the sources.

Gates visited Japan before the luncheon and pressed Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura on Nov. 8 to adhere to the bilateral agreement.

The sources said Gates’ remarks apparently reflected U.S. concerns that changes in the Futenma relocation plan could lead to a full revision of the bilateral accord on the realignment of U.S. military facilities in Japan.


Rest of article at: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/01/kyo_gatesfutenma_080104/