Joe Biden to host Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida in April, White House confirms
- The trip comes at a challenging time for both leaders, who have low public approval ratings at home
- The visit delivers on a promise by Biden to host Japan and is key to the United States’ strategy to lower tensions around China and North Korea
The formal event, which will include a lavish state dinner and a policy meeting, follows a promise by Biden to host the closely allied nation key to the United States’ strategy toward China, North Korea and other Asian security issues.
Biden and Kishida will discuss “efforts to strengthen our political, security, economic, and people-to-people ties” to improve Indo-Pacific security, said White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre.
Twenty-twenty-four “will be a pivotal year for Japan-US relations, with an official visit by Prime Minister Kishida taking place early in the year,” Japan’s ambassador to Washington, Shigeo Yamada, said on Thursday in pre-recorded remarks to an event hosted by the Wilson Centre think tank.
“The Japan-US alliance is indispensable to the peace, stability and prosperity, not only of our two countries, but also of the international community,” he said.
Mieko Nakabayashi, a professor at Japan’s Waseda University, told Washington’s Wilson Centre there was growing concern in the Japan about the prospect of second presidency for Trump, who has questioned the value of alliances and complained about cost of US troop deployments in Japan and South Korea.
“We are very, very worried, and we are thinking about a variety of scenarios of whoever becomes the president of the United States,” she said