Gates to meet new Japanese leaders during Pacific swing

Gates to meet new Japanese leaders during Pacific swing
By Kevin Baron, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Friday, October 16, 2009

ARLINGTON, Va. — Defense Secretary Robert Gates will travel to Asia next week where he will face the newly elected Japanese government, whose members have called for a “new relationship” with the U.S. military and a quicker reduction of the 50,000-strong American force there.

Gates will meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Minister of Defense Toshimi Kitazawa and Minister of Foreign Affairs Katsuya Okada, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday. The secretary’s first Tokyo visit is the second of four stops on his trip and comes roughly a month before President Barack Obama is to visit Japan.

Gates is expected to discuss the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and the progress of moving U.S. Marines to Guam, issues that the new government has sought to re-examine. Talks between the two sides have intensified, but Kitazawa said he did not expect an agreement before Obama’s visit.

Gates’ first stop on the Pacific swing will be in Hawaii on Monday to mark the retirement of Pacific Command’s Adm. Timothy Keating and install Adm. Robert Willard, recent commander of Pacific Fleet.

~snip~

The Pentagon has long said it was time for the Chinese military to reciprocate after Gates visited Beijing two years ago. Xu will visit several U.S. installations to build “better trust and transparency,” Morrell said, including the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Fort Benning in Georgia, Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, North Island Naval Air Station in San Diego, and Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=65399



unhappycamper comment: Note that Xu will most likely visit our terrorist training camp at Ft. Benning, School of the Americas a.k.a. Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

http://soaw.org/

School of Americas Watch organization.