Biden and Kishida Discuss Japan ‘Stepping up’ Security 

US President Joe Biden (R) and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida shake hands during their meeting inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US 13 January 2023. (EPA)
US President Joe Biden (R) and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida shake hands during their meeting inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US 13 January 2023. (EPA)
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Biden and Kishida Discuss Japan ‘Stepping up’ Security 

US President Joe Biden (R) and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida shake hands during their meeting inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US 13 January 2023. (EPA)
US President Joe Biden (R) and Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida shake hands during their meeting inside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US 13 January 2023. (EPA)

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida were holding 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 were also ready to seal an agreement to bolster US-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 will cap 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 US 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% 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% of GDP. 

“Japan is stepping up and doing so in lockstep with the United States,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. 

Blinken said this week that the US-Japan space cooperation framework was a “decade in the making” and “covers everything from joint research to working together to land the first woman and person of color on the moon.” 

He added that the US 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 US-Japan security treaty. 

Before Friday's meeting of the two leaders, US 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. 

Japan’s push to step up defense spending and coordination comes as concerns grow that China could take military action to seize Taiwan and that North Korea's spike in missile testing could augur the isolated nation's achieving its nuclear ambitions. 

The talks with Biden, a Democrat, "will be a precious opportunity to confirm our close cooperation in further strengthening the Japan-US alliance and our endeavor together toward achieving a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Kishida told reporters just before departing Japan for his five-country tour. 

His sit-down with Biden is the final face-to-face in a week of talks with fellow Group of Seven leaders that focused largely on his efforts to increase Japan's defense spending and urge leaders to improve cooperation. 

With Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, he cemented Japan’s first defense agreement with a European nation, one that allows for the two countries to hold joint military exercises. 

Kishida also discussed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron his hopes to improve security cooperation between Japan and their respective nations. Germany was the lone G-7 country not on Kishida's itinerary. 

Japan last month announced plans to buy US-made Tomahawks and other long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea under a more offensive security strategy, while Japan, Britain and Italy unveiled plans to collaborate on a next-generation jet fighter project. 

“Just a few years ago, there would have been some discomfort in Washington with a Japan that has this kind of military capability,” said Chris Johnstone, a former National Security Council official in the Biden administration who is now the Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Those days are gone.” 

Biden administration officials have praised Japan for stepping up in the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Japan was quick to join the US and other Western allies in mounting aggressive sanctions on Moscow, and Japanese automakers Mazda, Toyota and Nissan announced their withdrawal from Russia. 

The Biden administration officials have been pleasantly surprised by Japan's intensified effort to reconsider its security. 

A senior administration official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss negotiations with the Japanese, noted that historically negotiations involving US force posture in Okinawa have been “unbelievably fraught, incredibly challenging and difficult” and often took years to complete. But, the official said, negotiations before this week’s meetings were completed with striking speed. 

The official said Biden is expected to raise the case of Lt. Ridge Alkonis, a US Navy officer deployed to Japan who was jailed after pleading guilty last year to the negligent driving deaths of two Japanese citizens in May 2021. 

Alkonis’ family says he suddenly fell unconscious behind the wheel during a family trip on Mt. Fuji. He veered into parked cars and pedestrians in a parking lot, striking an elderly woman and her son-in-law, both of whom later died. 

The Navy officer was sentenced in October to three years in prison, a sentence that the family and US lawmakers have called unduly harsh considering the circumstances. Alkonis also agreed to pay the victims $1.65 million in restitution. 

The official added that the Biden administration was working “to find a compassionate resolution that’s consistent with the rule of law.” 

Kishida met with Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday before his meeting with Biden to discuss US-Japan space cooperation and other issues. 



Rubio to Make First Asia Trip as Trump Unveils Tariffs on Host and Allies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacts as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump's State Department budget request for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacts as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump's State Department budget request for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
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Rubio to Make First Asia Trip as Trump Unveils Tariffs on Host and Allies

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacts as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump's State Department budget request for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reacts as he testifies at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on US President Donald Trump's State Department budget request for the Department of State, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, May 20, 2025. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Malaysia this week to attend meetings of Southeast Asian Nations in his first trip to Asia as America's top diplomat, the State Department said on Monday.

The department announced the July 8-12 trip, billed as a move to reaffirm Washington's commitment to the Indo-Pacific, just hours before President Donald Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on imports from Japan and South Korea, the key US allies in the region and vital partners in countering China's growing might, as well as on Malaysia.

Trump also announced 40% tariffs on Laos and Myanmar, which along with Malaysia are members of ASEAN.

Rubio will take part in meetings with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose ministers are gathering in Kuala Lumpur and will also meet with senior Malaysian government officials, the State Department said.

Rubio will seek to firm up US relationships with partners and allies unnerved by Trump's global tariff strategy and the president's announcements look certain to dampen the mood.

The trip has been seen as part of a renewed US focus on the Indo-Pacific and an effort to look beyond conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have consumed much of the Trump administration's attention.

"Top topics that he's going to want to hit, obviously, are to reaffirm our commitment to East Asia, to ASEAN, to the Indo-Pacific, and not just ... for its own sake," a senior State Department official told reporters.

"I think a key message that the secretary likes to deliver is that we're committed, and we prioritize it because it is in America's interests, right? It promotes American prosperity and it promotes American security."

The official said Rubio would be prepared to discuss trade, including reiterating that the need to rebalance US trade relationships is significant and echoing messages from the White House and US Trade Representative.

ASEAN countries have been nervous about Trump's tariffs and questioned the willingness of his "America First" administration to fully engage diplomatically and economically with the region.

"There is a hunger to be reassured that the US actually views the Indo-Pacific as the primary theater of US interests, key to US national security," said Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The White House said twelve other countries after Japan and South Korea will receive trade letters informing them of new tariffs to take effect from August 1.

Trump said on Sunday the US was close to finalizing several trade pacts and would notify other countries by July 9 of higher tariff rates. He also sent a message to BRICS group of developing nations as its leaders met in Brazil, threatening an additional 10% tariff on any aligning themselves with "anti-American" policies.

The BRICS includes ASEAN member Indonesia, as well as China and India.

Trump announced last week he had reached a trade agreement with important Southeast Asian partner and ASEAN member Vietnam and could reach one with India, but cast doubt on a possible deal with Japan, which is not only Washington's main Asian ally, but a major investor in the United States.

Rubio has yet to visit Japan, or South Korea, the other main US ally in Northeast Asia, since taking office in January, even though Washington sees the Indo-Pacific as its main strategic priority given the perceived threat from China.

South Korea's presidential security adviser Wi Sung-lac headed to Washington on Sunday for trade and defense talks, with Seoul seeking to head off US tariffs. He aims to meet with Rubio and discuss a possible summit between Trump and President Lee Jae Myung, who took office last month.