U.S.-Japan ties get early test ahead of Obama visit

U.S.-Japan ties get early test ahead of Obama visit
Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:30am EDT
By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A trip by the U.S. defense secretary to Tokyo this week will offer an early test of ties with Japan's new government, which swept to power last month promising a more independent path from Washington.

The change of guard in Japan has raised uncertainty among investors watching the pivotal role of the U.S. alliance in a region that is also home to North Korea, an unpredictable and reclusive state that is pursuing a nuclear program.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, whose trip will include South Korea, will give assurances of Washington's "full-throated commitment" to defend allies in Asia from any threat from North Korea after its latest missile test, U.S. defense officials said.

But Gates is also expected to seek assurances during his visit on Tuesday and Wednesday that Japan's new government will honor past security accords, clearing away possible sources of friction before President Barack Obama's visit next month.

Those include a contentious agreement on rejigging U.S. forces in Japan, home to 48,000 U.S. troops.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama wants a Marine air base moved off Okinawa island -- an option U.S. officials rule out. They say it would undermine broader security arrangements long in the making.

"It's been in the works for 15 years. ... You start to pull on one thread and you run the risk of the whole thing unraveling," said one defense official, briefing journalists before the trip on the condition he not be named.

Washington also wants Japan to come forward with new forms of assistance to Afghanistan, if Tokyo follows through with plans to halt a naval refueling mission backing coalition forces, the official said.

"That contribution does not have to be a military one. In fact, a lot of the very valuable contributions in Afghanistan are on the development side and the training side," he said.

Japan's defense minister said on Tuesday that Tokyo would end its refueling mission in support of coalition operations in Afghanistan, but a top government spokesman said a decision had yet to be made.

Analysts expressed optimism that Tokyo and Washington would reaffirm their historically strong ties, despite a new government in Japan and a young administration in Washington.

"The Japanese will be reassuring him (Gates) that nothing much is going to change, even though they've made a lot of noise," said Phil Deans, professor of international affairs at Temple University's Tokyo campus.

SOUTH KOREA HANDOVER

After Japan, Gates heads to South Korea, where nearly 29,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed to help defend against North Korea, which fired five short-range missiles on October 12.

The Pentagon called those tests "unhelpful and potentially destabilizing" and senior U.S. officials immediately traveled to Tokyo and then Seoul last week to assure allies the United States could defend them, officials said.

"North Korea is obviously trying to achieve break-out as a nuclear weapons state. We will never accept this," one official said.

Asked whether there were concerns that Asian allies might pursue their own nuclear programs to defend against North Korea, a U.S. official said the hope was that a strong U.S. commitment would steer them away from "the nuclear option."

Gates' trip to Seoul also comes amid a major restructuring of the U.S. military alliance with South Korea, forged during the 1950-53 Korean War. Seoul is set to take wartime control of its forces by 2012.

"We think it's a natural evolution of the alliance, that it's time now 60 years after the start of the Korean War," an official said.

Officials said Gates was set to confirm progress toward the handover.

"That will be one of the issues that will be discussed," he added. "And we fully expect that we will endorse the progress we've made and that we're on target for transfer in 2012."

South Korea's 650,000 troops face about 1.1 million in North Korea, which devotes the bulk of its resources to its military despite a struggling economy.

(Additional reporting by Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo; Editing by Paul Eckert and John O'Callaghan)

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