DHAKA: United States and Japanese officials said on Thursday they will position a second early-warning radar in Japan within the next year and deploy new long-range surveillance drones to help monitor disputed islands in the East China Sea by next spring, moves that may well raise tensions again with China.

The foreign and defence ministers of the two countries also, for the first time, put a price on what Japan will contribute to the relocation of Marines out of Okinawa to Guam and other locations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Japan will pay up to US$3.1 billion of the move, which includes development of new facilities in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

The announcements came at the close of high-level meetings between US state secretary John Kerry and US defence secretary Chuck Hagel with Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida and defence minister Itsunori Onodera.

The talks, ahead of US president Barack Obama’s visits to Indonesia and Brunei next week, were aimed at modernizing the American-Japanese alliance that both sides maintain is a cornerstone of peace and stability in North Asia.

BDST: 1627 HRS, OCT 03, 2013
RoR/Jck