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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Japan on Sunday as part of an Asia-Pacific tour aimed at shoring up alliances in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The visit comes three months after President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced what they called a new era in Japanese-US relations at a summit at the White House.
Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were due later Sunday to hold “2+2” talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Defense Minister Minoru Kihara.
Then, on Monday Blinken and Kamikawa will meet Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Australia’s Penny Wong, their counterparts in the Quad, an alliance seen as a bulwark against Beijing.
Prompted by unease about China and alarm about North Korea, Japan has, in recent years, been shedding its strict pacifist stance, ramping up defense spending and moving to obtain “counterstrike” capabilities.
