Futenma base being relocated to Nago now – on track for this year

Clinton and Maehara, US Secretary of State and Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1/6/11 (Hillary and Seji, 6 January 2011, US
Department of State, “Remarks With Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Seji Maehara After Their Meeting,” http://m.state.gov/md154069.htm)
(**THE MAY 28TH AGREEMENT INDICATES THAT THE BASE WILL BE RELOCATED IN Q1 OF 2011 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_Corps_Air_Station_Futenma#Current_relocation_plan**)
FOREIGN MINISTER MAEHARA: (Via interpreter.) At an appropriate time, we shall be holding a 2+2 meeting. We have agreed on that. Now, the –
with regard to the content that is spelled out in the May 28th joint statement, we will advance whatever items that we
can advance, and we agreed on that as well. What
is important is that on the Futenma relocation issue, we advance the
work in accordance with the May 28th agreement, but this needs to be done with the agreement of the local
community in Okinawa. We are seeing various provocative behavior of the DPRK and also, the security situation in the areas surrounding Japan
and our region are changing, how we respond to that. The U.S. engagement will be very important in this regard. And the core of that U.S. presence is the
U.S. Forces Japan, and we need to firmly maintain their presence. That is most important. So we will work on reducing (inaudible) on
Okinawa and maintain deterrence with the presence of the U.S. forces, and we’ll strive to maintain both aspects. SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I
agree with the minister’s assessment that we have a challenging security environment in the East Asia region now. The United States is firmly
committed to our alliance with Japan, and we continue to work on the full range of significant issues that are
part of this bedrock security alliance, and of course, Futenma is part of that.