Tokyo Tells Trump It Is Already Paying Enough in Tribute off-guardian

by Marko Marjanovic at Checkpoint Asia Early in the election campaign Donald Trump was saying how he is going to scale down the pricey global US empire of bases, which wouldn’t have been a bad idea at all. Unfortunately he soon toned it down saying the bases can stay because he was going to make the host nations pay for them. The reaction from Japan which hosts 113 of America’s 800 bases abroad? We’re paying enough as it is, thank you very much: Japan is now paying “enough” for the cost of stationing U.S. forces in the country, Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said Friday, though she was silent on how the government would respond if the next U.S. administration led by Donald Trump demands an increase in Japan’s budget. “I believe it is enough. We are bearing the costs of what we ought to pay at present,” Inada told a press conference, referring to the nearly 200 billion yen ($1.9 billion) in so-called host-nation support paid every year. US pretends its military installations are there …

from OffGuardian http://ift.tt/2fAvR7z
via IFTTT