Clinton downplays tension with Japan and China

The following is adapted from today’s Morning Brief on FP‘s Passport:

Arriving in Honolulu yesterday wearing a lei (as seen above), Secretary Clinton is kicking off her  tour of the Pacific region with a meeting in Hawaii with her Japanese counterpart, Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. The meeting will likely focus on the relocation of the U.S. air base on Okinawa, which the United States wants to keep on the island but which the Japanese want moved elsewhere. More generally, the talks may be aimed at defusing tensions that have emerged since the election of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is looking to make Japanese security policy less dependent on the United States.  Clinton said she’s hoping the talks will "reaffirm the centrality of our 50-year-old alliance."

En route to Hawaii, Clinton also discussed U.S. relations with China, denying that recent arms sales to Taiwan and President Obama’s upcoming meeting with the Dalai Lama would damage the relationship. "What I’m expecting is that we actually are having a mature relationship," she said. "That means that it doesn’t go off the rails when we have differences of opinion."