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Mori Holds Talks with Clinton
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and US President Bill Clinton held talks Saturday on the issues of reducing the land areas occupied by US military bases in Okinawa and the planned relocation of heliport functions from the US Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in the central Okinawa city of Ginowan.
Mori, during the talks, also raised a proposed 15-year limit for military use of a new military-civilian airport to be constructed to accommodate the Futemma helicopter operations, said a Japanese official.
The Japanese government reportedly pledged earlier to seriously consider the 15-year limit proposed by the Okinawa prefectural government and take it up in consultations with the United States.
In 1996, Japan and the United States agreed to vacate the Futemma base on condition that its helicopter operations be relocated within Okinawa.
The two leaders had planned to meet on Thursday afternoon in Tokyo, but the talks were postponed due to Clinton's delay of arrival because of his involvement in the Middle East peace negotiations at Camp David, Maryland.
Clinton flew directly to Okinawa on Friday morning for the three-day summit of the Group of Eight leaders from France, Britain, Italy, Germany, the United States, Japan, Canada and Russia.
Upon his arrival, Clinton said that the US government would keep its commitments and continue to do what the US can to "reduce footprint on this land."During the talks, Mori and Clinton agreed that the two countries would continue negotiations on renewing a five-year agreement on the financial arrangements supporting the US presence in Okinawa.
The two countries already reached an agreement in principle a few years ago to cut Japan's annual 1.8-billion-US dollar financial support by up to 30 million a year.
Concerning bilateral trade deregulation talks, the two leaders agreed to continue the talks into the fourth year and applauded a deal reached earlier this week regarding interconnection rates charged by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), one of Japan's giant telecommunication corporations.
Under the deal, the fees NTT charges its competitors for access to its local networks will be cut by 20 percent in the first two years and the formula to calculate the rates will be reviewed in the third year.
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