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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivers a speech at the leaders' session of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland. He also met world leaders on the sidelines. Photo: Kyodo

Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden have first in-person meeting, agree to enhance ties

  • Kishida and Biden agreed to cooperate toward a free and open Indo-Pacific amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region
  • He also met British PM Boris Johnson, Australian PM Scott Morrison and Vietnamese PM Pham Minh Chinh at the UN climate summit in Glasgow
Japan
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden held their first in-person talks on Tuesday, agreeing to enhance the bilateral alliance and closely cooperate toward a free and open Indo-Pacific amid China’s growing assertiveness in the region.

Kishida also met his counterparts from Britain, Australia and Vietnam on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in Glasgow. Tokyo views these countries as key partners in advancing a free and open region, and agreed to forge closer ties with them.

The flurry of diplomatic activity took place during Kishida’s brief first foreign trip as the Japanese leader. He departed following Sunday’s general election in which his governing coalition won a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives.

After arriving in the Scottish city of Glasgow earlier on Tuesday, Kishida had a brief conversation with Biden, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

The two agreed to continue to jointly deal with climate change issues as well as regional issues, apparently mindful of the challenges and threats posed by China as well as North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes.

Kishida told reporters later in the day he agreed with Biden to meet again at the earliest date possible, which could be later this year, to have more “thorough” discussions.

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is seen at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland. Photo: Reuters

The former long-serving foreign minister already had phone talks with Biden after being elected prime minister by parliament last month, but it was the first time that the two met face-to-face while serving in their current positions.

In his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Kishida affirmed cooperation toward promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific and agreed to accelerate talks for a deal to improve legal and other procedures to facilitate joint exercises between their defence forces.

The negotiations for a Reciprocal Access Agreement come as Britain has been stepping up its engagement in the region, partly propelled by Beijing’s undermining of democracy and human rights in Hong Kong, a former British colony.

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As members of the Quad group that also involves the United States and India, Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison agreed on the importance of both bilateral and quadrilateral ties in pursuing a free and open region.
During talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Kishida expressed his strong opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas.

China has conflicting territorial claims with four members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) – Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam – as well as Taiwan in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than one-third of global trade passes.

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Beijing also claims the Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku, a group of uninhabited islets in the East China Sea administered by Japan. China has frequently sent its coastguard ships near the chain of islets.

Kishida and his Vietnamese counterpart agreed to cooperate over supply chain issues, given that many Japanese companies have production and other corporate bases in the Southeast Asian country, and to accelerate talks to promote Japanese defence exports, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Kishida and Biden vow to bolster allianceagree to beef up alliance in 1st in-person talks
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