WASHINGTON (US) – US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will showcase a united front on Taiwan, in a summit meeting on Friday, according to a senior US administration official.
Biden and Suga are likely to agree on a joint statement on Taiwan at Biden’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader, said the official, on the condition of anonymity.
Biden and Suga will also talk about Beijing’s treatment of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and its influence over Hong Kong. It will also announce a $2 billion Japanese investment in 5G telecommunications to deal with China’s Huawei Technologies.
“You’ve seen a series of statements out of both the United States and Japan on the cross-strait circumstances on Taiwan, on our desire for the maintenance of peace and stability, on preserving the status quo, and I expect that you will see both a formal statement and consultations on these matters,” the senior administration official told reporters.
With this move, it now aims to ramp up pressure on China.
The US official added that both countries aims to send a clear signal that Beijing’s dispatch of warplanes into Taiwan’s airspace was not in line with peace and stability.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday that China has voiced concerns about what he called “collusion” between Japan and the United States, and the countries must take their concerns seriously.
The visit was “another concrete display showing the Taiwan-US relationship really is rock solid”, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, after the delegation left.
The US official said Washington expected “each of our countries has slightly different perspectives” and would not “insist on Japan somehow signing on to every dimension of our approach.”
“We also recognise the deep economic and commercial ties between Japan and China and Prime Minister Suga wants to walk a careful course, and we respect that,” he added.
Biden aims to energise joint efforts with Australia, India and Japan, known as the Quad, plus South Korea, to face both China and North Korea. Biden and Suga are expected to announce plans for the next Quad meeting on Friday, the official said.
Presenting a united front will call for a balanced action, with Japan and South Korea’s economic ties with China and relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
“It is concerning to us, even to the point of being painful, for us to see relations between Japan and South Korea fall to the current level,” the US official said.
“The political tensions are such that we believe it actually impedes all of our abilities to be effective in Northeast Asia, and I think the president will want to discuss this in some detail with Prime Minister Suga.”