US President Joe Biden will travel to South Korea and Japan next month and attend the Quad summit in Tokyo, during which he will also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the White House has said.
Biden’s trip to South Korea and Japan has been scheduled from May 20 to 24.
During the May 20-24 trip, Biden will meet the leaders of the two countries with the aim of advancing his ‘administration’s rock-solid commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and to US treaty alliances with the Republic of Korea and Japan,’ Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
In Tokyo, Biden will also meet with the leaders of the Quad grouping which additionally includes Australia, Japan and India, and is seen as a bulwark against an increasingly assertive China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the diplomatic relations between India and Japan have deepened in every sphere.
‘As we celebrate 70 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Japan today, I am happy to see that our ties have deepened in every sphere, whether strategic, economic or people-to-people contacts,’ PM Modi said in a tweet.
The Biden administration has repeatedly characterized the Asia-Pacific region, and particularly the rise of communist China, as the number one strategic issue for the United States.
China and the United States, the world’s two biggest economies, are at loggerheads over trade, human rights and, more broadly, what Biden often portrays as a defining struggle in the 21st century between the globe’s autocracies and democracies.
The visit also comes after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has test-fired a slew of banned weapons this year while ignoring US offers of talks and vowing to accelerate his nuclear program rapidly.
During Biden’s bilateral meetings with newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio he will ‘discuss opportunities to deepen our vital security relationships, enhance economic ties, and expand our close cooperation to deliver practical results,’ Psaki said.
The visit will come after a US-ASEAN special summit of South Asian leaders in Washington from May 12-13.