Array
President Joe Biden arrived in Japan on Thursday and greeted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida by saying, “When our countries stand together, we stand stronger” — a sign of how the economic and national security alliance between the two countries has grown.
The US president began his remarks by noting that Kishida said during a January Washington visit that the world faced one of the “most complex” security environments in recent history. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” Biden said.
“We very much welcome that the cooperation has evolved in leaps and bounds,” Kishida told Biden about Japan’s relationship with the US in their meeting ahead of the Group of Seven summit that begins Friday.
The Kishida family’s home city of Hiroshima will host the gathering of major industrialized nations known at the G-7.
The setting of Hiroshima, where the US dropped the first nuclear bomb in 1945 during World War II, carries newfound resonance.
The US, Japan and their allies are strategizing on how to deal with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine as well as concerns about the increased cadence of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests and Iran’s nuclear program.
Biden is appearing on the world stage while trying to manage a divide back in the US on how to raise the debt limit.
He opted to cut short what was supposed to be an eight-day trip to Asia, so he can return to Washington to try to avoid a potentially catastrophic default in June that could ripple across the global economy.
It’s a drama that reveals how internal US politics can spillover into global forums.
Jake Sullivan, the White House national security adviser, said the Russian invasion looms large, and would be a significant conversation during the G-7.
“There will be discussions about the battlefield,” Sullivan said aboard Air Force One, stressing that the G-7 leaders would work to seal off any loopholes in sanctions so their effect can be maximized. “There’ll be discussions about the state of play on sanctions and the steps that the G-7 will collectively commit to on enforcement in particular.”
Sullivan said Biden and Kishida, are aiming to advance a relationship that’s progressed over the course of the last two years “in every dimension, whether it’s the military dimension of the alliance, the economic dimension, the recently concluded agreement on clean energy, the work we’re doing together on economic security.
