by Andrea Shalal and David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden told Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that the United States remains firmly committed to the alliance between their two countries during a meeting at the House on Friday. white.
The visit to Washington by Fumio Kishida, who traveled to Paris and London earlier this week, is part of a tour of the G7 countries of which Japan holds the rotating presidency.
During a meeting in the Oval Office, Joe Biden said that the alliance between the United States and Japan was experiencing a “remarkable moment”, the two countries having never been so close.
“I want to be very clear: The United States is totally, completely, completely committed to the alliance,” Joe Biden said.
“Japan and the United States currently face one of the most complex and challenging security environments,” Fumio Kishida said, thanking the United States for its work on regional security.
The Japanese prime minister said Tokyo presented its new defense strategy last month to “ensure regional peace and prosperity”.
Japan last month announced plans to boost its military capabilities by $320 billion and double the defense budget to around 2% of gross domestic product over five years.
(Reporting Jeff Mason, Andrea Shalal, David Brunnstrom, Michael Martina and Tim Ahmann; French version Camille Raynaud, editing by Nicolas Delame)
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