Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is planning to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden in the United States in the first half of April at the earliest, for what might be the U.S. leader's first in-person summit with a foreign leader since his inauguration.
The two leaders are likely to discuss ways to strengthen the Japan-U.S. alliance and realize a "free and open Indo-Pacific," with China in mind, the Japanese government announced Friday.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato announced Suga's planned visit to the United States at a press conference on Friday morning. The summit agenda is likely to include matters related to the Korean Peninsula and other regional issues, as well as measures against the novel coronavirus and climate change.
As a precaution against the coronavirus, the Japanese government plans to limit the prime minister's entourage to 80-90 people. All members of the Japanese delegation, including Suga, will be vaccinated in advance.
U.S. presidents have conventionally chosen the leaders of countries such as Canada and Britain as their counterparts for their first summit talks after taking office.
A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official on Friday welcomed Biden's pick of Suga for his first summit, saying, "This indicates that the Biden administration intends to focus on Asia without following conventional practices."
Biden has made clear its stance to focus on Asia by strengthening the U.S. alliance with countries in the Indo-Pacific region, such as Japan, Australia and India, toward "long-term strategic competition with China."
Ahead of the Japan-U.S. summit, the leaders of Japan, the United States, Australia and India -- known as the Quad -- were to hold their first summit online on Friday night. Tokyo and Washington are also scheduled to hold "two-plus-two" talks of their foreign and defense ministers as early as Tuesday. Through such talks, the Japanese and U.S. governments hope to lay the groundwork for the summit in April.
The United States is scheduled to hold a summit on climate change on April 22. Suga has set a goal of reducing Japan's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. The Japanese government intends to deepen discussions on environmental measures such as decarbonization at the Suga-Biden meeting in preparation for the climate change summit.
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