The US military has decided to abandon the plan to withdraw its 4th Marine Corps unit from Okinawa, Japan, Kyodo news agency reports.

The unit is intended for small-scale operations on small islands near Taiwan in the event of a military conflict in the area.

It was previously planned to redeploy it to the US island of Guam as part of a plan to reduce the US military presence in Okinawa. The plan, however, has been revised for operational reasons.

The US military command assumed that Guam’s being approximately 3,000 kilometers from Taiwan and approximately 500 kilometers from Okinawa significantly reduces the time for the unit to be deployed in an emergency.

Washington and Tokyo have been negotiating for years to reduce the US military presence in Okinawa. About 70 percent of US military installations in Japan and practically all combat units are concentrated there, and this causes dissatisfaction among local authorities and the population.

Currently, there are about 19,000 US Marines in Okinawa, of which 9,000 have been decided to be withdrawn from there, including 4,000 to Guam.