US President Joe Biden received Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on Friday, praising the strength of the alliance between the two countries and Japan’s growing role in safeguarding stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
“To be clear: the United States is fully committed to the alliance and, most importantly, to the defense of Japan,” Biden said in the Oval Office, praising the “historic increase” in Tokyo’s military budget and the new country’s security strategy.
“He is a true leader and a true friend,” Biden added, addressing Fumio Kishida.
The Japanese Prime Minister, for his part, presented the new Japanese defense doctrine adopted in December, which provides for a massive increase in budgetary terms.
That increase should “benefit our deterrence and response capabilities,” Kishida said.
This is the first visit to Washington by the Japanese leader, whose country this year holds the presidency of the G7, the group of the seven most industrialized countries in the world.
Kishida thus completed an intense tour of Europe and North America, which took him to countries such as France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
The two leaders discussed a variety of international issues, including the war in Ukraine, closer relations, as well as issues related to the economy and technology.
In that sense, Washington is pushing for stronger restrictions on Chinese semiconductor exports.
Betting on space defense, the additional provision of US marines in Okinawa (near Taiwan) and a military agreement with London are some of the plans that Japan is showing to China, and which it considers an “unprecedented strategic challenge” for its security. .
Tokyo announced a review of the country’s defense doctrine in December, forecasting a near doubling of military spending to 2% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2027.
Japan also aims to achieve a “counter-strike capability” through the acquisition of long-range missiles, a big change for this country whose anti-war constitution adopted after World War II forbids it from going to war.
Meeting in Washington on Wednesday, the US and Japanese heads of diplomacy and defense agreed to explicitly extend the US-Japan security treaty to the space domain and announced the deployment by 2025 of a rapid reaction force from Marine Corps in Okinawa, the closest Japanese territory. to Taiwan and mainland China.
“I strongly support Japan’s updated national security policies, including decisions to increase defense spending and acquire counter-attack capabilities. And I am proud of the historic decision we announced to update and modernize the United States’ force posture in Japan. deploying forces with more versatile, mobile, and resilient capabilities,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin said Thursday.
“We remain deeply concerned by China’s coercive behavior in the Taiwan Strait and in the waters around Japan. (…) I want to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to Japan’s defense, including comprehensive US deterrence and nuclear capabilities.” he added.
The Japanese prime minister has not yet signed an agreement in the field of space cooperation with NASA, the US federal agency responsible for space exploration programs, today.
Source: TSF
