Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked U.S. President Barack Obama to postpone the planned revision of bilateral defense cooperation guidelines from the originally set year-end deadline until next spring and obtained his approval when the two met at the Group of 20 summit in Australia in mid-November, several diplomatic sources said Sunday.
Abe made the request to Obama during their talks on Nov. 16 in Brisbane on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting, as he hoped to prevent the controversial security issue from influencing nationwide local elections slated for April, the sources said.
Officials of the two countries are now arranging for the first revision of the guidelines in 17 years to take place in early May at the earliest, they said. The guidelines specify the roles of the Self-Defense Forces and U.S. military.