US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced increased military cooperation to confront China during a state visit to the White House.
The US-Japan alliance has undergone a major upgrade, with agreements including constructing an air missile defence network with Australia and creating unified command structures. They underlined that these actions are entirely defensive and intended to protect international law from unilateral attempts to use force to change the status quo.
The leaders also declared mutually beneficial cooperation to accelerate the development of nuclear fusion and agreements in the fields of economics and technology. They both stated that they anticipated seeing a future US mission where a Japanese person would become the first person who is not American to set foot on the moon.
They also seek to improve defence collaboration using roughly seventy agreements, one of which will modernise the US military command system in Japan. Potential collaboration between Japan and the US on the Aukus defence partnership was also discussed, while Japan’s full membership is still up for debate.
In addition to addressing Congress, Kishida will take part in debates about Beijing’s actions in the South China Sea. Biden said he agreed with Japan’s efforts to start talks with North Korea.
