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US President Joe Biden, left, and Fumio Kishida, Japan’s prime minister, during a summit meeting at the Akasaka Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on May 23. Photo: Bloomberg
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US, Japan plan to hold summit on UN assembly sidelines on September 20, with focus on China, North Korea

  • Biden-Kishida summit expected to include talks on Chinese military pressure on Taiwan and a possible North Korean nuclear test
  • Proposed September 20 meeting could be reduced to short talks as Biden has indicated he will attend Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral on September 19
Japan
Kyodo
Kyodo
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US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are planning to hold a summit around September 20 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, diplomatic sources said on Saturday.
The meeting could, however, be reduced to short talks as Biden has already indicated that he will travel to London to attend Queen Elizabeth’s state funeral, which might clash with the first day of high-level debate at the assembly on September 20.
In addition to talks on cooperation in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the pair is expected to hold further discussions on the security environment around Japan, including increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan and a possible North Korean nuclear test.

‘Might doesn’t make right’, says US envoy of China’s ‘hostile maritime actions’

Kishida is also likely to seek cooperation from Washington on holding next year’s Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima, devastated by a US atomic bombing in the closing stages of World War II in August 1945.
Should the two come together for discussions, it will be the first meeting between them since June when they attended the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Germany. The pair also joined a trilateral meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid two days later.
Chinese military activity in the Taiwan Strait has intensified since US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island in early August inflamed tensions between the two powers. Relations were further strained following a US decision to have two warships pass through the strait on August 28.
There are also fears North Korea may have completed preparations for its seventh nuclear test.
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