US President Biden holds talks with Japan’s PM Kishida ahead of G7 summit in Hiroshima

United States President Joe Biden on Thursday arrived in Japan, where he greeted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida by saying, “When our countries stand together, we stand stronger”, which is a sign of how the national security and economic alliance between the two nations have grown.

The US president began his statement by noting that Kishida had stated during a January Washington visit that the countries are facing one of the “most complex” security environments in coming years. “I couldn’t agree with you more,” said Biden.

“We very much welcome that the co-operation has evolved in leaps and bounds,” Kishida said to Biden speaking about the relationship of Japan with the US in their meeting which was held ahead of the G7 summit that starts on Friday.

Hiroshima, the home city of the Kishida family, is hosting the gathering of G7 countries. With this, Hiroshima, where the first nuclear bomb was dropped by the United States in 1945 during World War II, carries newfound resonance.

The US, Japan and their allies have been working on strategies to deal with the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war as well as have been discussing the increased cadence of Iran’s nuclear programme and North Korea’s ballistic missile tests.

Biden is taking part in the series of discussions while parallelly managing the issue of the debt limit in the United States. The president decided to cut short his trip, which was earlier supposed to be eight-day long so that he can return to Washington at the earliest and avoid any catastrophic default in June which could ripple the global economy.

Russia-Ukraine war to be discussed in G7: White House

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the invasion of Russia looms large, and it will be a significant issue of discussion during the G7 meetings.

WATCH | Japan G7 summit: No nation wishes to strain ties with economic powerhouse China

“There will be discussions about the battlefield,” said Sullivan aboard Air Force One, while emphasising that the G7 leaders would work to remove any possible loopholes in sanctions so that its effect can be maximised. “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,” he said.

Sullivan stated that Biden and Kishida are aiming towards advancingtheir relationship which has progressed at a good speed in 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.”

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