WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio for an official visit to the United States, which will include a state dinner, on April 10, the White House said Thursday.

The White House will treat Kishida as a state guest.

“The visit will underscore the enduring strength of our alliance partnership, the unwavering US commitment to Japan and Japan’s increasing global leadership role,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.

Kishida will be the first Japanese prime minister to be treated as a state guest by the US government since ABE Shinzo, who visited the country in 2015.

Kishida and Biden are expected to discuss China’s hegemonic behavior, relationships with Taiwan and continuing support for Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion.

Biden hopes to use the occasion of the state dinner, which will also be attended by Kishida’s wife, Yuko, and US first lady Jill Biden, to demonstrate the closeness of Japan-US ties.

For the Biden administration, strengthening the Japan-US alliance, which is at the core of the alliance network in the Indo-Pacific region, has become a top priority in efforts to counter China, as the United States’ relative national power is said to have declined. Treating Kishida as a state guest is the highest-level hospitality to be given by Washington to the prime minister, who is not head of a state, and is aimed at calling the world’s renewed attention to the strength of Japan-US relations.

John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the US National Security Council, told a press conference on Thursday that the strengthening of three-way cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea will be on the agenda of the upcoming Kishida-Biden talks. With Donald Trump, who was reluctant to engage in multilateral cooperation during his tenure as US president, returning to the White House remaining a possibility, Biden apparently hopes to solidify the trilateral ties including by holding regular summit and ministerial talks among the three countries.

Meanwhile, opposition from the Republican Party in Congress has cast a cloud over whether the United States will be able to continue to provide assistance to Ukraine. Biden hopes to win support from Japan, the only Asian member of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations, on the Ukrainian aid issue and use that to persuade the Republicans to agree on the sustained assistance.

During his stay in the United States, Kishida also plans to deliver a speech to Congress.

JIJI Press