US warns Japan over relocation of Futenma airbase

The US yesterday told Japan the planned relocation of a US marine airbase and thousands of troops based on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa was not up for negotiation in a further sign of growing tensions over the future of the US military footprint in east Asia. Reports said the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, told the Japanese ambassador to Washington, Ichiro Fujisaki, that Japan must honor a 2006 agreement to move the Futenma airbase–located in a crowded city on Okinawa–to the island's remote east coast. Fujisaki told reporters the discussion had centered on "the importance of US-Japan" ties, but Clinton reportedly made it clear that the US expected "swift implementation" of the existing accord. Last week, the Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, said he needed more time to determine the base's future following electoral promises to lessen the Japanese dependence on US foreign policy.