Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Japanese counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone signed a new pact Tuesday on the relocation of U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam, honoring the two allies' commitment to the 2006 roadmap on realigning U.S. forces in Japan.
Under the accord, Japan will spend a total of 2.8 billion U.S. dollars on "projects to develop facilities and infrastructure on Guam" for the relocation of some 8,000 personnel of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force and their 9,000 family members from Okinawa by 2014.
And Japan is also bound to provide 6.09 billion U.S. dollars of the estimated 10.27 billion dollars needed for the relocation of Marines to the U.S. territory in the Pacific.
The document is to be submitted to the current Diet session for its approval.
In the fiscal 2009 budget, the Japanese government has already earmarked 34.6 billion yen (376.09 million U.S. dollars) for the relocation projects.
As Japan's central government and local municipalities differ over the exact location of new runways to be built around the U.S. camp, the relocation, which is expected to be completed by 2014, has been delayed.