6 November 2009 / REUTERS, TOKYO
A US diplomat said on Thursday that Washington was “fully committed” to its alliance with Japan, as the two governments prepared for a visit by President Barack Obama that has been clouded by a feud over a US Marine base.
The dispute over where to put a replacement facility for Futenma air base on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa, a key part of a realignment of the 47,000 US troops in Japan, is one of several flashpoints in the alliance, seen as the core of security arrangements in the region. The row coincides with deepening questions about how China’s rising military and economic clout will reshape the decades-old US-Japan alliance. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates last month bluntly urged Japan to implement a 2006 deal on where to put the new facility and called on Tokyo to resolve the issue before Obama arrives on Nov. 12, on the first leg of an Asian tour.
