thedrifter
09-14-07, 07:39 AM
Guam hopes to start work on move in 2010
Kyodo News Service
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2007 6:25:54 EDT
NAHA, Japan — Guam Gov. Felix Camacho told Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Friday that he expects work to begin as early as 2010 for the construction of facilities in Guam to host Marine troops and their families, who are set to move from Okinawa.
Camacho, who is visiting Okinawa, conveyed the information during a meeting with Nakaima at the prefectural government office in Naha.
Camacho told Nakaima that almost all the Guam islanders welcome the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa, and he hopes the realignment of U.S. forces on Okinawa will go smoothly.
The Guam governor met with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo on Thursday and discussed the realignment of U.S. forces in the Pacific, according to the Guam government.
In May 2006, Japan and the U.S. reached an agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces. The plan involves moving about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, relocating the Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Ginowan to Nago, and transferring carrier-borne aircraft from the Navy’s Atsugi base to the Marines’ Iwakuni base.
Also under the agreement, the U.S. will move the 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 relatives to Guam by 2014, on the condition that Futenma base be relocated within Okinawa. Japan will shoulder part of the financial burden for the construction of the facilities in Guam.
Meanwhile, Nakaima told Friday’s news conference that he hopes the Japanese government will resume talks with municipalities on Okinawa to discuss the relocation of Futenma base. Such talks have been suspended since last January.
Nakaima said he will give his opinion in a government document about the procedures to conduct an environmental impact assessment for the relocation of Futenma base only after the talks are resumed.
Local governments on Okinawa are opposed to a government plan to build an airfield, with two runways in a V-shaped formation, off the coast of the Marines’ Camp Schwab and a new landfill nearby by 2014 to replace the Futenma Air Station, located in a densely populated area of Ginowan.
Ellie
Kyodo News Service
Posted : Friday Sep 14, 2007 6:25:54 EDT
NAHA, Japan — Guam Gov. Felix Camacho told Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Friday that he expects work to begin as early as 2010 for the construction of facilities in Guam to host Marine troops and their families, who are set to move from Okinawa.
Camacho, who is visiting Okinawa, conveyed the information during a meeting with Nakaima at the prefectural government office in Naha.
Camacho told Nakaima that almost all the Guam islanders welcome the planned transfer of U.S. Marines from Okinawa, and he hopes the realignment of U.S. forces on Okinawa will go smoothly.
The Guam governor met with Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo on Thursday and discussed the realignment of U.S. forces in the Pacific, according to the Guam government.
In May 2006, Japan and the U.S. reached an agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces. The plan involves moving about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, relocating the Marine Corps’ Futenma Air Station in Ginowan to Nago, and transferring carrier-borne aircraft from the Navy’s Atsugi base to the Marines’ Iwakuni base.
Also under the agreement, the U.S. will move the 8,000 Marines and their 9,000 relatives to Guam by 2014, on the condition that Futenma base be relocated within Okinawa. Japan will shoulder part of the financial burden for the construction of the facilities in Guam.
Meanwhile, Nakaima told Friday’s news conference that he hopes the Japanese government will resume talks with municipalities on Okinawa to discuss the relocation of Futenma base. Such talks have been suspended since last January.
Nakaima said he will give his opinion in a government document about the procedures to conduct an environmental impact assessment for the relocation of Futenma base only after the talks are resumed.
Local governments on Okinawa are opposed to a government plan to build an airfield, with two runways in a V-shaped formation, off the coast of the Marines’ Camp Schwab and a new landfill nearby by 2014 to replace the Futenma Air Station, located in a densely populated area of Ginowan.
Ellie