Article 3 of the new treaty promised to eventually return all Japanese territories occupied by the United States in the aftermath of World War II. In June 1968, the United States returned the Bonin Islands (including Iwo Jima) to Japanese administrative control. In 1969, the Okinawa reversion issue and Japan's security ties with the United States became the focal points of partisan political campaigns. The situation calmed considerably when Prime Minister Sato Eisaku visited Washington in November 1969, and in a joint communiqué signed by him and President Richard Nixon, announced the United States had agreed to return Okinawa to Japan by 1972. In June 1971, after eighteen months of negotiations, the two countries signed an agreement providing for the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.