TOKYO: The Japanese government is working on a plan for Prime Minister SUGA Yoshihide to meet with Joe Biden, who is certain to have won the US presidential election, before any other world leader.

Tokyo is looking to display a strong US-Japan alliance to neighboring countries by having the Japanese leader build a relationship of trust with the next US president at an early time. Japan plans to ask Washington to accept a US visit by Suga and a Suga-Biden meeting soon after the US presidential inauguration day on Jan. 20 next year, Japanese government sources said.

Suga told reporters Monday that he wants to arrange his visit to the United States and phone talks with Biden preceding the possible US trip at the appropriate time. He also said that he seeks to strengthen the Japan-US alliance.

The order in which a new US president meets leaders of other countries after inauguration is believed to be a barometer for how important they are for the United States.

In the previous US presidential election in 2016, then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an unofficial meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump just nine days after the election day, becoming the first foreign leader to meet in person with him.

The first official Abe-Trump meeting took place at the White House three weeks after Trump’s inauguration ceremony in January 2017, leading to a close-knit relationship between the Japanese and US leaders.

Eight years earlier, then US President Barack Obama invited then Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso as the first foreign leader to meet with him, reflecting Obama’s policy of placing emphasis on relations with Asia-Pacific nations.

The Japanese government views its ties with the United States as the core of its diplomatic and security policies.

A senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said that “it’s crucial for us not to show any gaps in Japan-US relations” in view of China’s growing assertiveness in the East China Sea, North Korea’s unabated nuclear ambition and Japan-South Korea relations, which are said to be at the worst point since the two countries normalized their diplomatic relations.

Suga’s swift efforts to meet with Biden also reflect concerns that the prime minister may be viewed as inept at diplomacy if he does not visit the United States quickly, as Aso and Abe did, sources said.

“We will aim to visit the White House first,” a Japanese government official said, stressing Tokyo’s determination to realize Suga’s meeting with Biden ahead of other world leaders.

It is customary for a US president-elect not to conduct diplomacy before inauguration, and many expect Suga’s visit to the United States to be come in February next year. Tokyo is believed to have already asked the Biden side for face-to-face and telephone talks with Suga.

Despite Biden’s advantage in the presidential election, the Japanese government had planned to wait until the results were clear before the prime minister sent his congratulations, out of consideration for Trump, who is believed to have been defeated by Biden in the election.

On the other hand, the wait-and-see attitude was feared delaying Suga’s efforts to build a relationship with Biden, a scenario Tokyo wanted to avoid.

US media reported early Sunday Japan time that Biden was the likely winner of the presidential election.

Suga posted a tweet congratulating the Democratic Party candidate on Sunday morning, after the heads of European powers sent messages for Biden following his declaration of victory.

Suga’s congratulatory tweet was “not too early, not too late,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

JIJI Press