Obama looks forward to Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor

(Baonghean.vn) - According to Kyodo news agency, on December 6 in Tokyo, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter conveyed to the Japanese Prime Minister that President Barack Obama "very much looks forward" to Mr. Shinzo Abe's visit to Pearl Harbor.

US Defense Secretary shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on December 6. Photo: Kyodo.

Abe's trip to Hawaii and meeting with Obama there would be a "wonderful sign of the shared commitment to peace and reconciliation" between two countries that are building a strong alliance, Secretary Carter said at the start of his meeting with Abe.

Just as Obama became the first US president to visit the atomic bombed city of Hiroshima earlier this year, Abe will become the first Japanese prime minister to visit the site of Japan's surprise attack on a US naval base in 1941, drawing the US into World War II.

Mr. Carter also confirmed U.S. plans to hand over to Japan about half of the vast U.S. military training area in Okinawa and, by December 22, reduce the area of ​​land occupied by U.S. military facilities on the island that hosts most of the U.S. bases in Japan.

Carter spoke at a meeting at Prime Minister Abe's office, affirming that the US "is ready to conduct the largest land handover in the history of the alliance, and I can assure you that the US shares the same goal as the Japanese side to complete this by December 22."

About 4,000 hectares of forest land in the US military's Northern Training Area in the villages of Kunigami and Higashi will be returned under a bilateral agreement signed 20 years ago. However, the construction of a new heliport in the area, which is still under US control, has faced opposition from local residents, some of whom have even filed a lawsuit to halt the airport construction over noise concerns. However, a local court dismissed the petition on December 6, stating that there was no evidence that the noise would cause serious health problems.

Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada is scheduled to discuss the return of the land with Mr. Carter at a meeting on December 7. According to a U.S. official, the two sides may discuss efforts to address Okinawa's concerns about crime related to U.S. bases, especially after the arrest of a civilian employee working at a U.S. base for the murder of a local woman in April.

Also at the press conference on December 6, Ms. Inada said that she and Mr. Carter would reaffirm the bilateral alliance and discuss the challenges that need to be addressed, hoping that those issues will be inherited by the new US administration when President-elect Donald Trump takes office on January 20. According to Ms. Inada, the negotiations are expected to "lead to close cooperation between Japan and the US."

Secretary Carter is visiting Japan as part of a world tour to meet with key regional partners.

Thu Giang

(According to Kyodo)