Japan to spend $1.9B this year to host US troops

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - Japan said Wednesday it would spend $1.9 billion to host US troops this fiscal year beginning April.

The announcement was made by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi after Japan secured a cost-sharing deal for the roughly 55,000 US troops stationed in the country, Kyodo News reported.

The deal extended by one year a five-year cost-sharing agreement under a bilateral security alliance between the two sides that would have ended next March -- the end of Japan's fiscal year.

"We want to maintain close cooperation with the United States to strengthen our alliance's deterrence and ability to respond to challenges," Motegi told a news conference in the capital Tokyo.

Cost-sharing is revised every five years and is set to be tabled in the Japanese parliament in the coming days for legislative approval.

Japan and the US will, however, continue discussions for cost-sharing in the coming years.

Under former President Donald Trump, the US had sought to hike costs from host countries where American troops are deployed.