Biden and Kishida discuss Japan increase in defense security
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held wide-ranging talks at the White House on Friday as Japan looks to build security cooperation with allies in a time of provocative Chinese and North Korean military action.
The two administrations also sealed an agreement to bolster U.S.-Japanese cooperation on space with a signing ceremony by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa.
The Oval Office meeting and signing ceremony at NASA’s Washington headquarters capped a weeklong tour for Kishida that took him to five European and North American capitals for talks on his effort to beef up Japan’s security.
Biden welcomed Kishida to the White House on Friday morning for the prime minister’s first visit to Washington since he took office in October 2021. Inside the Oval Office, the U.S. president praised Japan for its “historic” increase in defense spending and pledged close cooperation on economic and security matters.
“We meet at a remarkable moment,” Biden told Kishida, adding later, “The more difficult job is trying to figure out how and where we disagree.”
Kishida, speaking through an interpreter, said the two nations “share fundamental values such as democracy and the rule of law” and stressed that their joint role on the global stage “is becoming even greater.”
It all comes as Japan announced plans last month to raise defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product in five years, a dramatic increase in spending for a nation that forged a pacifist approach to its defense after World War II. Japan’s defense spending has historically remained below 1 percent of GDP.
Kishida went to NASA’s Washington headquarters after visiting the White House for the signing of the space agreement.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the two countries are “poised to unlock the secrets of the universe.” Blinken said “we’re entering a new chapter of space exploration” as they plan expeditions to the moon and Mars.
Earlier this week, Blinken said the U.S. and Japan agree that China is their “greatest shared strategic challenge” and confirmed that an attack in space would trigger a mutual defense provision in the U.S.Japan security treaty.
Before Friday’s meeting of the two leaders, U.S. and Japanese officials announced an adjustment to the American troop presence on the island of Okinawa in part to enhance anti-ship capabilities that would be needed in the event of a Chinese incursion into Taiwan or other hostile acts in the region. Japan is also reinforcing defenses on its southwestern islands close to Taiwan, including Yonaguni and Ishigaki, where new bases are being constructed.