The transfer of U.S. Marine Corps troops stationed in Japan's Okinawa to Guam will start in December, a Marines official said Sunday, the latest development in a long-agreed Japan-U.S. forces realignment plan aimed at reducing the southern island prefecture's base-hosting burden. The cost of the Guam transfer is estimated at $8.7 billion, of which up to $2.8 billion will be shouldered by the Japanese government. But Japan and the United States agreed in 2012 to "delink" the Futenma relocation plan with the Guam transfer plan amid a lack of tangible progress on the Futenma project, with locals calling for moving the base out of Okinawa. The following year the two countries said that the transfer to Guam will begin in the first half of the 2020s. In January 2023, defense and foreign chiefs of Japan and the United States agreed in Washington on "accelerating" work on U.S. force realignment efforts, affirming a plan to start the relocation of Marines from Okinawa to Guam in 2024.

Source: Libya Today June 17, 2024 04:45 UTC