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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Japan acknowledged Tuesday that they would miss a 2014 deadline for a controversial shift of a US base in Okinawa, but stood firmly behind the plan in the face of opposition.
The future of the Futenma air base on the subtropical island has bedeviled ties between the Pacific allies for years and both governments have been eager to push ahead on a 2006 deal instead of restarting exhaustive talks.
In a joint statement after top-level talks, the Pacific allies said the relocation "will not meet the previous targeted date of 2014" but renewed their commitment to complete the project "at the earliest possible date."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, meeting with their Japanese counterparts, also confirmed plans to move 8,000 Marines and some 9,000 dependents from Okinawa to the US territory of Guam.
Under the 2006 plan between previous governments, the United States planned to shut the flashpoint Futenma base in Okinawa which has long been a source of grievance as it lies in a crowded urban area.
The Japanese and US leaders on Tuesday endorsed building a replacement base with V-shaped runways at Henoko on an isolated stretch of beach elsewhere on the strategically located island.
A number of activists on Okinawa demanded that the base be removed entirely from the island, the often reluctant host to half of the 47,000 US troops based in Japan under a post-World War II treaty.
US senators recently moved to force the Pentagon to consider a new option, saying the current plan is too costly and politically unrealistic when Japan should be focusing on the rebuilding from its massive earthquake.
Gates, addressing one of his final news conferences as defense secretary, tried to put the effort led by Senators Jim Webb and Carl Levin -- members of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party -- in the context of the current plan.
"The letter from Senators Webb and Levin about the realignment is really a manifestation of growing congressional impatience about the lack of progress," Gates said at a four-way news conference with Clinton.
"We both reaffirmed the US government's commitment to the 2006 realignment plan, but at the same time emphasized the importance of concrete progress over the course of the next year," Gates said.
One prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, resigned last year after failing to fulfill campaign promises to renegotiate Futenma, with the Obama administration insisting the crux of the deal was not open to debate.
His successor, Prime Minister Naoto Kan, has sought to move ahead with the base plan without tying his fate to the issue as he focuses instead on the earthquake aftermath and his government's survival in parliament.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa played down criticism that the center-left Democratic Party of Japan has held up progress since taking power in 2009, saying: "This is the cost that is entailed in democracy when we have a change of government."
"The purpose of the US realignment is to maintain deterrence and to reduce the local burden, so we will be making maximum efforts with the United States to achieve both objectives."
Under an alternative plan drafted by Webb, a former Marine who represents Virginia, Futenma would be closed and its air assets largely shifted to Okinawa's existing Kadena Air Base.
Webb also proposed shifting some of the existing air assets from Kadena to elsewhere in Japan and Guam, a solution he said would ease both congestion and costs in Okinawa.
The Senate Armed Services Committee last week agreed to cut off funding for the 2014 shift until the Marine Corps comes up with a new study on Guam -- where opposition is also building -- and considers the alternative on Futenma.
Senator John McCain, the top Republican on the committee, has supported the effort, telling a forum Monday: "As new realities and cost overruns call our current plans into question, Congress must ask the hard questions."
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