April 10, 2024 (EIRNS)—In their joint press conference today to report on their bilateral summit, President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio heavily emphasized their “global partnership” and the steps they are taking to strengthen defense and security cooperation. “This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established,” Biden boasted.
As part of this, he added, Japan, the U.S. and Australia will for the first time create a “networked system of air, missile and defense architecture.” Moreover, the AUKUS military partnership with Australia and the U.K, is “exploring how Japan can join our work in the second pillar which focuses on advanced capabilities.” But Kishida later said, perhaps wisely, Japan had no plans to directly cooperate with AUKUS.
Kishida made much of Japan as an important “global partner” of the U.S. proclaiming that the international situation stands at a “historical turning point,” in which the defense of the “open international order based on the rule of law” is primary. There will be no toleration of attempts to change the “status quo by force or coercion”—a reference to China—but Kishida also emphasized the importance of ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and encouraging peaceful resolution of the cross-Straits issue. The U.S.-Japan-Philippine alliance, which is meeting tomorrow in Washington, is another element in the plan to ensure a “free and open” Indo-Pacific.
