US-Japan alliance celebrated at White House with cherry blossom pledge, state dinner for Kishida
- Ahead of the dinner, US President Joe Biden announced Tokyo’s gift of 250 cherry blossom trees: ‘Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving’
- Lavish evening features house-cured salmon and rib-eye steak and a performance by Paul Simon
Tokyo will send Washington 250 new cherry blossom trees by 2026, the White House announced on Wednesday, as the United States and Japan enter a new season of their geopolitical alliance against China in the Indo-Pacific.
“The gift is meant to mark the 250th anniversary of the US in 2026,” President Joe Biden said at the official arrival ceremony to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is on a five-day official visit to the country.
Biden added that the trees would be planted at the Tidal Basin, a popular spot in the city famous for the nearly 3,000 cherry blossoms donated by Japan in 1912. In recent months, some 100 of the trees were uprooted because of construction work.
“Like our friendship, these trees are timeless, inspiring and thriving,” Biden said, adding that he and Kishida had strolled across the lawn and visited the three Japanese cherry trees at the White House on Tuesday night.
Speaking after Biden, Kishida described the centuries-old trees that adorn Washington as a “symbol of the friendship between Japan and the United States”.
The national flower of Japan also dominated the lavish state dinner hosted by the Bidens for Kishida and his wife on Wednesday evening.
