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US, Japan show united front on China in Biden's first summit

US, Japan show united front on China in Biden's first summit

President Joe Biden, accompanied by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, walks from the Oval Office to speak at a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Apr 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON: The United States and Japan vowed on Friday (Apr 16) to stand firm together against an assertive China and to step up cooperation on climate change and next-generation technology as President Joe Biden made his first summit a show of alliance unity.

Waiting nearly three months for his first foreign guest due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Biden told Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that Japan enjoyed "our iron-clad support" on security issues and beyond.

"We're going to work together to prove that democracies can still compete and win in the 21st century," Biden, affectionately calling the Japanese leader "Yoshi", told a socially distanced news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

A joint statement called for "candid conversations" with China and did not hold back, raising concerns over Beijing's growing maritime moves, its clampdowns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang and growing tension over Taiwan.

The statement reiterated that the US-Japan Security Treaty covers the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands - one of several areas in the region where Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyu, has increasingly shown its might.

The United States and Japan "recognise the importance of deterrence to maintain peace and stability in the region", the statement said.

"We oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the East China Sea," it said, in a line highlighted by Suga.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, accompanied by President Joe Biden, speaks at a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on Apr 16, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

As Beijing steps up air incursions in Taiwan, Biden and Suga in the statement emphasised "the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait" and encouraged "the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues".

While cautiously worded, it was the first time a Japanese leader has joined a US president in a statement on Taiwan since the allies separately switched recognition from Taipei to Beijing in the 1970s.

Taiwan is an especially sensitive issue for Beijing, which claims the self-governing democracy.

In a strongly worded statement on Saturday, China's embassy in Washington said Beijing was "resolutely opposed" to the joint statement, and that Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang were China's internal affairs.

The remarks have "completely gone beyond the scope of the normal development of bilateral relations", harming the interests of third parties as well as peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific, the embassy said.

The move was an attempt to split the region that "will inevitably proceed with the purpose of harming others and end in harming themselves", it added.

President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga leave a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Apr 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

UNIVERSAL VALUES

The forthright statement comes despite Japan's efforts in recent years not to antagonise China, its top trading partner, including by not joining Western nations in sanctions over human rights.

Suga echoed Biden's themes as he described the US-Japan alliance as the "foundation of peace and stability" in the region.

"Freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law are the universal values that link our alliance," Suga said.

In a highly unusual comment by a Japanese leader on the US domestic scene, Suga also voiced concern over a wave of attacks in the United States against people of Asian descent.

Biden's second in-person summit will take place next month with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, part of the new administration's strategy of shoring up alliances as it zeroes in on China as America's most pressing challenge.

On another of his key priorities, Biden said he and Suga agreed on the need for "ambitious" climate commitments and indicated that both nations would soon announce goals by 2030.

Biden will lead a virtual summit next week in hopes of rallying climate pledges amid growing evidence of a planetary crisis as average temperatures hit record highs and natural disasters become more frequent.

Japan, the world's third-largest economy, promised under the Paris accord to reduce emissions by 26 per cent by 2030 but from 2013 levels - a goal that experts say is not bold enough to meet Suga's goal of a carbon-neutral Japan in 2050.

"We confirmed that Japan and the US will lead global decarbonisation," Suga said.

ALLIANCE ON 5G

Biden and Suga said they would step up joint development and testing of fifth-generation Internet - as well as the sixth-generation technologies of the future.

The United States and Japan must "maintain and sharpen our competitive edge" and ensure that "those technologies are governed by shared democratic norms that we both share - norms set by democracies, not by autocracies," Biden said.

China's Huawei has taken an early dominant role in 5G, which is becoming a crucial part of the global economy, despite heavy US pressure on the company, which Washington argues poses threats to security and privacy.

READ: Japan PM Suga arrives in US for China-focused talks with Biden

A joint statement said the United States had committed US$2.5 billion and Japan another US$2 billion.

Masashi Adachi, a special advisor to Suga, told reporters that the agreement was more about joint development than fresh funding, pointing to several projects underway in Japan on 5G development.

Suga in September succeeded his ally Shinzo Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minister, who was one of the few democratic allies to manage to preserve stable relations with Biden's volatile predecessor Donald Trump.

Biden and Suga also recommitted to the denuclearisation of North Korea and discussed next moves following Trump's unusually personal diplomacy with the totalitarian state.

Source: AFP/reuters/aj

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