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Clinton to meet Japanese FM
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her Japanese counterpart here on Friday amid a row over the planned relocation of a controversial US base in Japan, the State Department said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will meet her Japanese counterpart in Washington on Friday amid a row over the planned relocation of a controversial US base in Japan, the State Department said.
Clinton's talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, confirmed by a State Department official to AFP, comes ahead of US President Barack Obama's first official visit to Japan on November 12-13.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who took power in September, has pledged to review a 2006 agreement to relocate the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base from an urban to a coastal part of the southern island of Okinawa.
Hatoyama has suggested the base -- which has angered residents because of aircraft noise and friction with US servicemen -- could be moved off the island altogether, a move Washington has strongly opposed.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has bluntly pressed Washington's key ally to "move on" quickly with the previously agreed plans to move Futenma operations to the coastal area near the US Camp Schwab site in central Okinawa.
