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.
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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
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Nakabayashi also said factional rivalries inside Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party raised questions about whether Kishida could hold on to power long enough to make the visit.
Frank Jannuzi, president and CEO of Washington’s Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, told the think tank the US-Japan alliance was long-standing, but not unbreakable.
“The easiest way to break it … would be for the United States to in the future somehow compromise the extent of our commitment to the security of our allies in Northeast Asia,” he said.
US deputy national security adviser Jon Finer said the Biden administration took a “very different” view to that of Trump.
“America’s network of alliances … are a force multiplier for US interests,” he told an Asia Society event. “They are a unique advantage that the United States has among our nearest peer competitors, not a burden on the country.”
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While the security relationship between the US and Japan has been growing ever stronger and they are looking to make a deal for Japanese shipyards to overhaul and maintain US Navy warships, Nippon Steel’s proposed purchase of US Steel is a source of controversy.
Democratic and Republican US senators have criticised the deal, citing national security concerns or raising questions about why the companies did not consult US Steel’s main union ahead of the announcement.
Brian Deese, a key player in Biden’s re-election bid, said last month the proposed purchase was concerning and the administration should look closely at it.
