US President Joe Biden will travel to Japan for an in-person summit of Quad leaders
- The summit was one topic discussed during a virtual meeting between Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
- The meeting also addressed the US-Japan military alliance, tension in the Taiwan Strait and China’s growing nuclear arsenal, an administration official says
Details on the timing of the meeting of the Quad – a regional security alliance including the US, Japan, Australia and India – have yet to be worked out, with arrangements dependent on the spread of Covid-19.
The virtual meeting featured wide-ranging discussions on the US-Japanese military alliance, tension in the Taiwan Strait and China’s growing nuclear arsenal, a senior administration official said.
The two leaders also agreed to a new “2+2” forum aimed at strengthening economic cooperation – especially technology and supply chain issues – between the two nations and across the region.
“The close alignment between the United States and Japan was really on full display – so, very broad discussion on security, on views about the challenges in the Indo Pacific,” including “very in-depth discussions” on China, the administration official said.
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These included shared concerns about “some of the steps that China had taken across the board in terms of intimidating neighbours, taking steps that were predatory trade in other realms,” he added. “Prime Minister Kishida was particularly concerned about the nuclear build-up in China and what that augured for regional security.”