Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Friday that Japan and the United States have begun arrangements for a top-level security meeting on Oct. 29 in Washington.
The meeting is aimed at adopting an interim report on U.S. military realignment in Japan, government officials said.
Machimura briefed Koizumi on the outcome of working-level bilateral realignment talks held Wednesday in Tokyo. The talks are part of the so-called two-plus-two meeting between the defense and foreign affairs chiefs of the two countries