U.S. President Joe Biden will hold talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday ahead of the Group of Seven leaders’ summit from Friday to Sunday in Hiroshima, the White House has announced.
Questions had emerged earlier over Biden’s attendance after he said he could miss the G7 summit or attend virtually due to ongoing negotiations over the U.S. federal debt limit. But the White House said Sunday that the visit would go on as planned, with Biden becoming just the second sitting U.S. president to visit the atomic-bombed city. He is set to leave Washington on Wednesday and arrive the following day.
Biden had hinted last week that he could stay in Washington if the debt limit negotiations dragged on.
The talks Thursday between the U.S. leader and Kishida will likely focus on the two countries’ alliance, the war in Ukraine and regional security — including how to work with China on global challenges while deterring its growing assertiveness.
Also on the agenda for the Biden-Kishida talks will be the improving relations between Japan and South Korea after years of chilly ties.
Leaders of the three countries are set to hold a trilateral meeting on the G7 summit sidelines. The three are expected to discuss “strategic coordination measures” to upgrade cooperation to face “shared challenges” including North Korean nuclear threats, supply chain problems and energy security, according to South Korea’s Presidential Office.
Japan’s top government spokesman told a news conference Monday that the trilateral meeting would help to “further deepen” discussions on these issues.
“As the security environment in the region becomes even more challenging due to continued provocations by North Korea, it is important to strengthen our deterrence and response capabilities through security cooperation via the Japan-U.S. alliance, the U.S.-South Korea alliance, and Japan-U.S.-South Korea ties,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Biden’s Hiroshima visit will be the 80-year-old’s second trip to Japan since he took office in 2021. The two leaders last met in January, when Kishida traveled to Washington for talks.
At the G7 summit, leaders will discuss “a range of the most pressing global issues,” according to the White House, including the group’s “unwavering support for Ukraine,” food security, the climate crisis, and securing “inclusive and resilient economic growth.”
The G7’s response to Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine, however, is widely expected to be at the top of the agenda.
Kishida has said the G7 meeting will be “the most important summit in Japan's history.” And an absence, or even virtual attendance, by the U.S. president would have dealt a crushing blow to the annual meeting, where Biden’s physical presence is expected to help galvanize the type of interpersonal discussions that typically help craft consensus at G7 meetings over contentious issues.
This year, these kinds of discussions are expected to prove especially important as G7 leaders seek to present a united front on bringing an end to the Ukraine war and as divisions emerge over their approach to China’s growing assertiveness.
Kishida’s administration has sought to link the conflict in Ukraine with security in the Indo-Pacific, repeatedly echoing the mantra of “Ukraine today could be Asia tomorrow.”
“At the G7 summit in Hiroshima, we will work closely with the U.S. to firmly reject any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force or the threat of using nuclear weapons, as Russia has been doing,” Matsuno said Monday, adding that the grouping “will strongly demonstrate to the world the strong will of the G7 to uphold a free and open international order based on the rule of law.”
Although nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation will be a key — and symbolic — topic of discussion at the summit, Biden is unlikely to deliver a separate statement on the issue, Japanese Ambassador to the U.S. Koji Tomita said last week.
The G7 summit — which brings together the leaders of Japan, the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union — is also expected to cover supply chains, economic coercion and global health.
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