Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono expressed hope Friday to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in early June on the sidelines of an international security meeting in Singapore to accelerate bilateral talks on U.S. military realignment plans.
"If it is possible, we want to take the opportunity of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld attending the Shangri-La Dialogue and to a certain degree shape the direction of the discussion and speed it up," Ono told a press conference.
The multilateral security dialogue forum, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, is scheduled to take place June 3-5 in Singapore with the attendance of about 20 defense ministers mainly from the Asia-Pacific region.
(Kyodo) Defense Agency Director General Yoshinori Ono expressed hope Friday to meet U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in early June on the sidelines of an international security meeting in Singapore to accelerate bilateral talks on U.S. military realignment plans.
"If it is possible, we want to take the opportunity of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld attending the Shangri-La Dialogue and to a certain degree shape the direction of the discussion and speed it up," Ono told a press conference.
The multilateral security dialogue forum, organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, is scheduled to take place June 3-5 in Singapore with the attendance of about 20 defense ministers mainly from the Asia-Pacific region.
While Ono declined to comment on specific plans being discussed by Japanese and U.S. officials concerning the realignment of U.S. military bases in Japan, he reiterated his hope that the two sides would reach a general agreement by the end of the year.
"Time is not yet ripe to say when we can expect to see a rough outline (of the agreement), but we hope to resolve the big picture involving what to do with the bases here by the end of the year, although detailed issues would likely be handled next year," he said.
Since the top-level bilateral security talks in February, the two countries have been discussing the roles and missions of Japan's Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military in Japan, their possible joint use of some U.S. military bases and Tokyo's wish for Washington to return land taken up by idle facilities.
In the "two-plus-two" meeting of Japanese and U.S. ministers in charge of foreign and defense affairs held in Washington, the participants agreed to accelerate consultations on realigning U.S. military forces in Japan with a view to reduce the burden on local communities hosting U.S. forces while maintaining deterrence.
