US, Japanese leaders meet at the White House

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The United States and Japan need to strengthen their security cooperation in the face of threats from China and North Korea.

That's the message the leaders of America and Japan delivered as they held a bilateral meeting at the White House today.

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[Location: Washington, D.C.]

President Joe Biden graciously welcomed his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, to the Oval Office.

It was Kishida's first White House visit since he took office in October 2021.

While acknowledging disagreements, Biden lauded Japan for its historic move to ramp up defence spending.

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JOE BIDEN, U.S. President:

We meet at a remarkable moment in our alliance.

The United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance and, more importantly, to Japan's defence, the defence of Japan.

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For his part, Kishida responded through an interpretor saying both countries need to defend their shared values.

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FUMIO KISHIDA, Voice of Interpretor, Japanese Prime Minister:

Japan and the United States are currently facing the most challenging and complex security environment in recent history.

I, too, feel that the role to be played by Japan and the United States, which share the fundamental values such as democracy and the rule of law... the role that we are to play is becoming even greater.

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The duo discussed many issues, from China's growing assertiveness over the Indo-pacific region, to North Korea's sabre-rattling and to the war in Ukraine.

This, after Kishida met with G7 leaders throughout Europe to boost cooperation.

In their joint statement, the two countries reaffirmed their alliance and strongly opposed any unilateral attempts to alter the status quo by force.

Japan had announced plans last month to ramp up defence spending to 2 percent of its GDP in five years.

[Location: NASA Headquarters, D.C.]

Then it was time to celebrate a win at the NASA headquarters.

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Japan and the United States inked a deal to bolster U.S.-Japanese space cooperation.

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BILL NELSON, NASA Administrator:

Our space programmes have storied histories of barriers overcome and new worlds understood.

And so today, we chart a new chapter in a continuing adventure together.

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ANTONY BLINKEN, Secretary of State:

It'll strengthen our partnership in areas like research on space technology and transportation, robotic lunar surface missions, climate-related missions and our shared ambition to see a Japanese astronaut on the lunar surface.