American President Joe Biden paid a visit to the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo for a meeting with the ruler Naruhito.
It is the second time that Biden has seen Naruhito, reports the agency of the royal house, nine years later, when the current tenant of the White House came to Tokyo as vice president and met the then prince of the crown.
It is also the second US president that Naruhito – who took the throne in May 2019 – hosts in his residence, after the visit of Donald Trump which took place just shortly after his coronation.
Also today, Biden is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, for a bilateral summit focusing on the conflict in Ukraine and ways to strengthen strategic and military cooperation with the aim of containing China’s expansionism in the region. Indo-Pacific and the threat posed by North Korean nuclear tests. In the evening, the US president will be a guest at the gala event organized at the traditional Japanese garden of Happo-en, in the exclusive district of Shirokanedai, in the center of Tokyo.
“There will be concrete economic benefits for the countries that want to participate in the new economic alliance in the Indo-Pacific region”, underlined the American President Joe Biden in the meeting in Tokyo with the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, on the sidelines of the bilateral summit that will precede the informal meeting of the Quads with the participation of the leaders of India and Australia scheduled for tomorrow. In the second and final leg of his trip to Asia, Biden reiterated that the US is determined to defend Japan, with which it maintains an alliance that it considers the “cornerstone” of peace and stability in the region.
Kishida: Russia threatens global order
“The Russian aggression of Ukraine undermines the foundations of the global order”. This was stated by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the end of the meeting just concluded in Tokyo with President Joe Biden.