Naoaki Murata, administrative vice minister of the Defense Agency, on April 10 flatly denied recent media reports that U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, during his visit here, insisted on the need to maintain the U.S. Marines in Okinawa to ensure security in the Taiwan Straits.
According to the reports, Cohen told Defense Agency Chief Fumio Kyuma during defense talks April 7 that the current level of U.S. Marines stationed in Okinawa must be maintained even if the Korean Peninsula is unified.
Murata strongly denied the reports, claiming that "no such remark was ever made" during the top-level defense meeting. Murata went on to say that it was extremely regrettable that the media report even asserted that both nations' defense officials had conspired to withhold the information so as not to antagonize China. "The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty should never serve to contain or menace China," Murata reiterated. "Rather, China is a beneficiary of the treaty," he said, adding that Japan and the U.S. will continue their efforts to encourage China to collaborate in sustaining peace and stability in the region.