Top U.S. envoy for Asia praises ties with Japan

Kurt Campbell, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs, hailed the long-standing alliance and said “we are extraordinarily pleased” with preparations for Obama's November 12-13 Tokyo visit.

“We are fully committed to this alliance,” said Campbell after meeting Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada.

“We think that we are working very well together and everyone is excited to be back in Japan next week.”

Campbell, speaking with reporters, did not mention a row over plans by Japan's new centre-left government to review an agreement to build a new U.S. airbase on the southern island of Okinawa by 2014.

The U.S. envoy's tone was also in sharp contrast to comments last month by visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who bluntly told Tokyo to “move on” and resolve the base issue before Obama's visit.

Obama will meet Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who has voiced admiration for the U.S. leader but also promised a less subservient stance toward the superpower than that taken by Japan's previous conservative governments.

The U.S. envoy, who did not take questions from reporters, said Washington is “excited about this next phase in our relationship.”

The comments came after Okada scrapped plans to visit Washington this week for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after both sides failed to agree on a suitable date during Japan's parliamentary session.

Washington and Tokyo have been close allies in the post-war era, and the United States has about 47,000 troops based in Japan, more than half of them on Okinawa, where their presence has often rankled local residents.

Hatoyama's government, which took power in mid-September, has promised to review a 2006 pact on rejigging the U.S. troop presence, with the flashpoint being the Marine Corps Futenma Air Base located in an urban area of Okinawa.

Under the U.S.-Japan agreement, the base is due to be shifted to a less-populated coastal area of Okinawa by 2014 — but Japan's new government has said the base may have to be moved off the island or even out of Japan.

Senior U.S. government and military officials have repeatedly said Washington is in no mood to renegotiate the base relocation pact for Okinawa, considered a strategic location close to China, Taiwan and North Korea.

The Japanese premier on Wednesday said he is still keen to move the airbase out of Okinawa or even out of the country, while still aiming for a solution that honors both the bilateral agreement and the feelings of Okinawans.

Hatoyama this week also confirmed in parliament that his government would in January scrap a naval refueling mission that has supported the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan since 2001.

Campbell, at the start of his meeting with Okada, also mentioned his just-finished trip to military-ruled Myanmar — the first by a senior U.S. official in years — where he also met detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“It's a first step, an exploratory mission, and we were able to lay out our overall approach to the appropriate stakeholders inside the country,” Campbell told Okada in opening comments before media were ushered out of the room.

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