Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton affirmed tieups Wednesday in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, with Clinton welcoming Japan's new aid plan for the country worth $5 billion.
Okada told reporters after meeting with Clinton in Singapore that the two also agreed to reach a bilateral conclusion on the relocation of a U.S. Marine Corps base in Okinawa "as quickly as possible" through a new ministerial-level working group set up Tuesday.
They were on the same page against North Korea's nuclear threat, as Clinton briefed Okada about a U.S. plan to send Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korean policy, to Pyongyang in the near future to pave the way for a resumption of the stalled six-party denuclearization talks.
The Okada-Clinton talks on the sidelines of a two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum ministerial meeting through Thursday came a day after Japan decided to extend up to $5 billion, or about ¥450 billion, in civilian aid to Afghanistan over five years from 2009 as part of efforts to combat terrorism.