U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Japanese counterpart Katsuya Okada started talks in Hawaii on Wednesday. The two foreign ministers met for talks at a hotel outside Honolulu and were photographed before beginning private talks expected to last one hour. “Futenma (Air Base) is a very important issue, but we can't let it affect the broader alliance,” Okada said in an interview with the Washington Post., hours before the talks started. Clinton, speaking to reporters en route to Honolulu on Monday, also downplayed the issue. “The significance of our meeting is to reaffirm the centrality of our 50-year-old alliance,” she said on a tour that also will take her to Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand.
