U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday will present a united front on Taiwan, China’s most sensitive territorial issue, according to a senior U.S. administration official.
Biden and Suga are expected to agree on a joint statement on the island claimed by China, but democratically governed, at Biden’s first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. .
Biden and Suga will also discuss Beijing’s treatment of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and its influence on Hong Kong, while announcing a $ 2 billion Japanese investment in 5G telecommunications to counter China’s Huawei technologies. (HWT.UL)
“You have seen a number of statements from both the United States and Japan about the circumstances of the Taiwan Strait, about our desire to maintain peace and stability, about preserving the status quo, and I hope that you see both a formal statement and inquiries on these matters, ”senior management told reporters.
The last time American and Japanese leaders referred to Taiwan in a joint statement was in 1969, when the Japanese Prime Minister said that maintaining peace and security in the “Taiwan area” was important. for your own safety. This was before Tokyo normalized ties with Beijing.
The measure now aims to increase pressure on China. However, it seems that such a statement is not what the United States expected to see from Suga, who inherited a Chinese policy that sought to balance security concerns with deep economic ties when he took office as prime minister last September. .
In a statement following a March meeting of U.S. and Japanese defense and foreign ministers, the two sides “stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” and shared “serious human rights concerns in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
The U.S. official said the summit’s statement would be followed “very well” and that both countries, while unwilling to raise tensions or provoke China, were trying to send a clear signal that the submission of Beijing’s warplanes in Taiwan’s airspace was incompatible with peace and quiet. stability. Read more
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday that China has expressed its solemn concern over what he called “collusion” between Japan and the United States, and that countries should take it seriously. China’s concerns.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told emissaries who visited Biden on Thursday that the island would work with the United States to deter threats from Chinese military activities. Read more
The visit was “another concrete sign that the Taiwan-US relationship is really strong,” the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, after the delegation left.
China has never given up on using force to put Taiwan under its control.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said this week that it had not been decided whether there would be a joint statement and two Japanese ruling party lawmakers familiar with the discussions said officials had split on whether Suga should ‘adopt a firm statement on Taiwan.
The U.S. official said Washington expected “each of our countries to have slightly different perspectives” and would not “insist that Japan somehow initiate all dimensions of our approach.”
“We also recognize the deep economic and trade ties between Japan and China and Prime Minister Suga wants to follow a careful course and respect it,” he added.
With his first face-to-face summit with Suga and another scheduled with the South Korean leader in May, Biden is working to concentrate U.S. diplomatic and military resources in the Indo-Pacific and manage increasing global power. China, which Biden considers the critical problem of foreign policy. of the time.
“The big problems that are being played out are in the western Pacific and Afghanistan was really getting a disproportionate amount of time and it was focused and paying attention to the direction with more people,” the U.S. official said afterward. that Biden announced his plans to withdraw the United States. of Afghanistan before 9/11.
QUAD UNIT
Biden hopes to boost joint efforts with Australia, India and Japan, known as the Quad, plus South Korea, to fight both China and a longtime enemy, North Korea. Biden and Suga are expected to announce plans for the next Quad meeting on Friday, the official said.
The presentation of a united front will require a delicate balance given the economic relationship between Japan and South Korea with China and the icy relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
“We are concerned, even to the point of being painful, to see how relations between Japan and South Korea are falling to the current level,” the U.S. official said.
“The political tensions are such that we believe it actually impedes all our capabilities to be effective in Northeast Asia, and I think the president will want to discuss this in some detail with Prime Minister Suga.”
Relations between Tokyo and Seoul have deteriorated over issues related to the Japanese colonization of Korea in 1910-45, including that of Korean women forced to work in Japanese war brothels.
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