AFP, TOKYO : Japan and the United States are drawing up a new security framework on their military cooperation against terrorism and other threats, a newspaper said.
The Japanese and US governments are negotiating to draw up the Joint Security Declaration by early next year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.
The declaration is expected to redefine bilateral military cooperation in Japan amid the ongoing transformation of the US military presence here, the business daily said.
Washington is considering relocating the headquarters of its Army's 1st Corps to Camp Zama in Kanagawa, west of Tokyo, and integrating the 13th Air Force Command in Guam into the Yokota Air Force Base in the capital, the paper said, quoting sources close to the matter.
Japan and the United States are also considering setting up a joint body to discuss the relocation of the US military bases in Japan, it said.
Following the September 11 attacks, the US security policy shifted its emphasis from conventional warfare to the war on terrorism and efforts to deal with the threats posed by weapons of mass destruction.
Japan, meanwhile, plans to provide for the development of a missile defense system and review the organisation and equipment of its Self-Defense Forces in a new outline of its defense policy due to be drawn up this year.
The new declaration with the United States will be authorised based on these changes, the newspaper said.
In 1996 Japan and the United States redefined their Japan-US security alliance and formulated a bilateral declaration on security matters following the end of the Cold War.
Under the 1996 declaration, Washington devised a policy to maintain 100,000 troops in East Asia to provide for possible crises involving the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan.
The document, however, needs to be modified now that the US government is transforming its military deployment, the newspaper said.
