Joint Press Availability With Director-General Shinichi Nishimiya

But before discussing the Six-Party process or the visit of Secretary Rice and the agenda of her visit, I expressed my great regret at the situation that has developed in Okinawa, my great concern about the feelings of the people of Okinawa, and the fact that this is a very difficult time. I know that our military authorities, as well as our Embassy under Ambassador Schieffer, are looking at ways to address this situation, and I think we can all have great confidence that, together with the Japanese authorities and the authorities of Okinawa, that they can find a better situation in the future. So this is a very difficult situation, and I wanted to express my regrets and my concern for the people of Okinawa.

Now with respect to the visit of Secretary Rice, I know that she is very much looking forward to this visit here in Tokyo, to discussing the many issues that we have that we are working together on -- not only on the Six-Party process here in Northeast Asia, but also in Africa, from where Secretary Rice will have just come. She will be talking about issues related to the Middle East and the broader Middle East. She will be talking about, really, issues throughout the world and, most importantly, how to strengthen this alliance, this US-Japanese alliance, which is so important to my country and for which we really want always to see it be strengthened -- so that the U.S.-Japan alliance can really be a source of stability not only in Northeast Asia, but throughout the world. So she is very much looking forward to her visit. And my small visit here today is an effort to try to help prepare for that and, of course, to be in very close contact with the Japanese authorities as we move on the Six-Party process.

QUESTION: With regard to the incident in Okinawa, I would like to ask both of you for more specifics about what you discussed with regard to preventive measures.

DIRECTOR-GENERAL NISHIMIYA: Today we discussed preparations for Secretary Rice’s visit to Japan, but that was not the only thing we talked about. We had a limited amount of time, and he expressed his regret. The Government of Japan has conducted discussions with the U.S. Embassy and U.S.Forces Japan, and we are considering preventive measures. Japan and the U.S. will cooperate in considering preventive measures. This is important. Because of time constraints, we were not able to go into detail on all these issues.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY HILL: I agree with all of that. I'd like to emphasize that I know that Ambassador Schieffer has this issue as one of his absolutely top priorities, and so I'd like to defer to him on questions of this kind. From my vantage point, I just want to make very clear the great regret that we feel about this, the concern that we feel for the Okinawan people, and our desire that our officials in this country -- including our top official, Ambassador Schieffer, and General Wright -- that they do all they can to address the measures to try to prevent such incidents in the future.