US and Japan agree on Guam marines transfer Posted at 03:19 on 04 October, 2013 UTC The United States and Japan have agreed that Tokyo will pay a third of the cost of transferring some of the thousands of US marines based on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. A new protocol, amending the 2009 Guam International Agreement, was signed by both governments on Thursday. The change clarifies Japan’s contribution at just over three billion US dollars. This is to help develop facilities and infrastructure on Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Tokyo’s allocation will account for 36 per cent of the projected 8.6 billion US dollar cost of the relocation. The protocol also says the US government will favourably consider Japanese requests to use training areas in Guam and the CNMI. In a 2012 agreement, the US said it would pull 9,000 Marines out of Okinawa -- 4,000 of whom would go to Guam and 5,000 to Hawaii and on rotations to Australia -- as it seeks to ease a long-running standoff over the future of its huge military presence on Okinawa. News Content © Radio New Zealand International PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 03:55:54 +0000
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