TOKYO: Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio hopes to have talks with US President Joe Biden on April 10, government sources said Thursday.

At the envisaged summit meeting in the United States, the two leaders are expected to deepen the bilateral alliance, affirm close cooperation in dealing with China’s moves in the wake of Taiwan’s presidential election and exchange views on assistance to Ukraine, the sources said.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to be treated as a state guest by the US government since Shinzo Abe, who visited the country in 2015, and will deliver a speech to Congress, the sources added.

In response to Biden’s invitation at a Japan-US summit in November last year, Kishida initially considered making a US trip in early March.

But later he found it necessary to push back the visit because the president has to deliver his State of the Union address on March 7 and Kishida himself should be present at parliamentary deliberations on Japan’s fiscal 2024 budget during March.

JIJI Press