US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were yesterday to hold their first formal talks as the two leaders face fresh concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program and China’s growing military assertiveness.
The virtual meeting comes after North Korea earlier this week indicated that it might resume nuclear and long-range missile testing that has been paused for more than three years.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Thursday presided over a Workers’ Party meeting where officials set policy goals for “immediately bolstering” military capabilities to counter what were described as the US’ “hostile moves,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.
Photo: REUTERS
The US and Japan are also concerned about China’s increasing aggression toward Taiwan.
In the past few months, Beijing has stepped up military exercises near the nation, frequently sending warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense registration zone.
Japan also remains concerned about China’s intentions in the South China Sea, where it has stepped up its military presence, and the East China Sea, where there is a long-running dispute about uninhabited islets administered by Tokyo, but claimed by Beijing.
White House officials said that the two leaders were also expected to discuss ongoing efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and a brewing crisis in eastern Europe, where Russia has massed some 100,000 troops near its border with Ukraine.
Biden earlier this week said he believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to order a further invasion of Ukrainian territory, but he did not think Putin wanted an all-out war.
Biden and top aides have sought to rally the support of NATO partners and other allies to respond with harsh sanctions against Russia if it moves forward with military action.
On Thursday, in preparation for the leaders’ call, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Japanese National Security Secretariat Secretary-General Akiba Takeo held their own call to discuss North Korea, China and “the importance of solidarity in signaling to Moscow the strong, united response that would result from any attack” on Ukraine, the White House said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin also held virtual talks earlier this month with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Yoshimasa Hayashi and Japanese Minister of Defense Nobuo Kishi, where China’s military maneuvering and North Korea’s nuclear program were discussed.
The leaders’ virtual meeting would be the first substantial exchange between them since Kishida took office in October last year.
The leaders had a brief conversation on the sidelines of a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
Biden was the first leader to call Kishida on the morning of his first full day in office.
Biden, who has sought to put greater focus on the Indo-Pacific region amid China’s rise as a world power, had built a warm relationship with Kishida’s predecessor, Yoshihide Suga, and is hoping to build a similar rapport with the incumbent.
COMMITMENT: The world’s biggest contract chipmaker said that its new 2nm chips, as well as next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4nm chips, will be produced in Taiwan Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that the majority of its most advanced chips would continue to be manufactured in Taiwan and that it is boosting advanced chip packaging capacity to catch up with fast-growing demand driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications like ChatGPT. Deeply rooted in Taiwan, TSMC is expanding production capacity for its most advanced 3-nanometer (nm) chips at its Tainan fab and is building new plants to produce new 2-nanometer chips in Hsinchu and Taichung in 2025. The chipmaker also plans to produce next-generation, cutting-edge 1.4-nanometer chips, which are currently under development, at home, it
Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted on charges of mishandling classified documents at his Florida estate, a remarkable development that makes him the first former US president to face criminal charges by the federal government that he once oversaw. The US Department of Justice was expected to make public a seven-count indictment ahead of a historic court appearance next week amid a presidential campaign punctuated by criminal prosecutions in multiple states. The indictment carries unmistakably grave legal consequences, including the possibility of prison if Trump is convicted. It also has enormous political implications, potentially upending a Republican presidential primary that Trump
PASSAGE DISPUTE: A US and Canadian transit was a provocation and an attempt to ‘exercise hegemony of navigation,’ China’s defense ministry told a forum in Singapore The Ministry of National Defense yesterday urged the Chinese Communist Party to avoid provocative behavior after a Chinese navy ship crossed the paths of a US destroyer and Canadian frigate transiting the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese ship on Saturday “executed maneuvers in an unsafe manner in the vicinity of [the USS] Chung-Hoon,” an American destroyer, the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement. The vessel “overtook Chung-Hoon on their port side and crossed their bow at 150 yards [137m]. Chung-Hoon maintained course and slowed to 10 [knots, 18.5kph] to avoid a collision,” the statement said. It then “crossed Chung-Hoon’s bow a second time
HARD-WON FREEDOM: Beijing’s 1989 crackdown on protesters has not been and should not be forgotten, as China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Lai said Taiwanese enjoy democracy and freedom and have multiple ways to express their creativity, and hopefully young people in China would also one day have the freedom to sing and express themselves, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, commemorating the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Yesterday was the 34th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s bloody crackdown on student-led protests in Beijing in 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident. Tsai posted a photograph taken in March in a subway station in Guizhou, China, where hundreds of young people gathered to sing People With No Ideals Don’t Get Hurt (沒有理想的人不傷心), saying that they
RSS