PUBLIC LAW 103-160—NOV. 30, 1993 107 STAT. 1823 directed the President to develop a plan to gradually reduce the United States military force structure in East Asia. (4) The East Asia Strategy Initiative, which was developed in response to sections 913 and 915 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991, has resulted in the withdrawal of 12,000 United States military personnel from Japein and the Republic of Korea since fiscal year 1990. (5) In response to actions by the executive branch and the Congress, allied countries in which United States military personnel are stationed and alliances in which the United States participates have agreed to reduce the costs incurred by the United States in basing military forces overseas in the following ways: (A) Under the 1991 Special Measures Agreement between Japan and the United States, Japan will pay by 1995 almost all yen-denominated costs of stationing United States military personnel in Japan. (B) The Republic of Korea has agreed to pay by 1995 one-third of the won-based costs incurred by the United States in stationing United States military personnel in the Republic of Korea. (C) The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has agreed that the NATO Infrastructure Program will adapt to support post-Cold War strategy and could pay the annual operation and maintenance costs of facilities in Europe and the United States that would support the reinforcement of Europe by United States military forces and the participation of United States military forces in peacekeeping and conflict prevention operations. (D) Such allied countries and alliances have agreed to share more fully the responsibilities and burdens of providing for mutual security and stability through steps such as the following: (i) The Republic of Korea has assumed the leadership role regarding ground combat forces for the defense of the Republic of Korea. (ii) NATO has adopted the new mission of conducting peacekeeping operations and is, for example, providing land, sea, and air forces for United Nations efforts in the former Yugoslavia. (iii) The countries of western Europe are contributing substantially to the development of democracy, stability, and open market societies in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS. — It is the sense of Congress that— (1) the forward presence of United States military personnel stationed overseas continues to be important to United States security interests; (2) that forward presence facilitates efforts to pursue United States security interests on a collective basis rather than pursuing them on a far more costly unilateral basis or receding into isolationism; (3) the bilateral and multilateral arrangements and alliances in which that forward presence plays a part must be further adapted to the security environment of the post-Cold War period;
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