$8.6B military buildup could include training ranges in CNMI

The United States and Japan reached an agreement Thursday to relocate some 5,000 U.S. Marines from Okinawa to Guam as part of an $8.6-billion military realignment that could include the development of training ranges in Guam and the CNMI.

Japan will pay $3.1 billion of the $8.6 billion cost of expanding military facilities in the Marianas.

The U.S. State Department announced during a news briefing that the agreement creates new opportunities to build the relationship between the U.S. military and Japan’s self-defense forces.

“As you may have heard, one of the elements of the agreement will be looking at the possibility of developing together training ranges in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and turning those facilities, should we develop them, into shared-use facilities. This really creates an opportunity for significant deepening in our operational relationship together, and we’re quite pleased,” a State Department official told a news briefing.

Press Secretary Angel Demapan said yesterday that the Fitial administration is upbeat about the impact from the renewed potential for relocation of Marines.

“Although the number of Marines is much lower than previously agreed upon, it is still 5,000 more Marines than there are in Guam today,” he said.

Demapan said the Fitial administration is closely monitoring this development and have yet to receive official communication on the use of the ranges by both U.S. and Japan forces.

The release of the U.S.-Japan agreement comes a few days after Japanese military officials visited Tinian on a fact-finding mission related to the possibility of developing training areas on the island for joint use of U.S. and Japan forces.

Tinian Mayor Ramon Dela Cruz said he hasn’t seen the newly-released U.S.-Japan agreement or the reports about it, so he’s deferring comment at this time.

But since Dela Cruz assumed his post, he has been pressing for promised military activities on the island to help buoy the economy.

Two-thirds of Tinian land is leased by the U.S. Department of Defense from the CNMI government.

Douglas Brennan, president of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce, said the Chamber is “pleased the governments of the United States and Japan have reached a mutually beneficial accord on the relocation of United States Marines stationed at Futenma Air Base in Okinawa.”

“The move should be an economic boon to the island of Guam which will, hopefully, result in an economic ripple effect throughout the CNMI,” he said.

The U.S. and Japan’s agreement on a long-stalled plan to move troops off the island of Okinawa is a key part of the Obama administration’s strategy to intensify its focus on Asia, and disperse American troops around the region.

The new plan would move some 9,000 Marines off Okinawa, about 5,000 of them in Guam and move the rest to Australia or Hawaii. There are now about 18,000 Marines in Okinawa.