WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The U.S. does not accept the May deadline Japan has set for deciding on the relocation of a U.S. military base in Okinawa and called on Tokyo to promptly resolve the issue, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.
"It is not the preferred timeline, as far as we are concerned," the U.S. Defense Department spokesman said. "We've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time."
Partly due to conflicting views within the government on the plan set under the 2006 U.S.-Japan accord that calls for moving U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma elsewhere within Okinawa, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's government has put off concluding the issue until May despite calls to finish it by the end of last year.