Japan and the United States failed on Wednesday to reach a final
agreement on realignment of the US troops stationed in Japan and
decided to end the talks one day earlier than scheduled, Kyodo
News reported on Thursday.
The talks, which was held in Washington, split with the two
sides holding conflicting stances on the cost sharing of moving a
Marine troop from Okinawa to Guam, Kyodo said, quoting Japanese
government sources.
There was no major progress on other issues neither, insiders
said.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said in Tokyo that
the bilateral senior working-level talks will be held again later
next week.
The issue of cost sharing for moving 8,000 US Marines haunted
several rounds of negotiations, which have failed to produce a
final outcome by the originally scheduled deadline of March 31.
In former rounds of talks, the United States has officially set
the total estimated costs for the moving at about US$10 billion,
and asked Japan to share a burden of 75 percent, while Japan has
only offered to cover US$3 billion, including US$2.5 billion for
housing construction, through loans to be paid back by the United
States.
Analysts said the situation shadows the prospect for a final
agreement, and a top-level political decision may be needed in the
end, according to Kyodo.
Japan and the United States reached an agreement last October on
transferring 8,000 US Marine troops out of Okinawa, which hosts the
bulk of the US troops stationed in Japan.
(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 2006)
