U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea’s “complete” denuclearization and rebuked the regime for its continuing ballistic missile program and military cooperation with Russia, as they held a summit in Washington Wednesday.The leaders also redoubled calls for Pyongyang to return to dialogue in a joint statement that unveiled an array of agreements, including on upgrading their countries’ command and control structures, creating an air defense architecture among the U.S., Japan and Australia and deepening people-to-people exchanges.Their high-profile summit came as the Biden administration seeks to leverage its alliance network to confront global challenges and highlight its steady security commitment to the Indo-Pacific despite Russia’s war against Ukraine and the war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.”We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with relevant UNSC resolutions,” they said in the statement. UNSC stands for the U.N. Security Council.”We strongly condemn North Korea’s continued development of its ballistic missile program — including through launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles and space launch vehicles using ballistic missile technologies — which poses a grave threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond,” they added.But Biden and Kishida reiterated their openness to dialogue with the intransigent regime”We call on North Korea to respond to continued, genuine offers to return to diplomacy without preconditions,” they said.
The leaders also voiced their worries about security implications of burgeoning military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow.”We also express serious concerns about growing North Korea-Russia military cooperation, which is supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and threatens to undermine peace and stability in Northeast Asia as well as the global non-proliferation regime,” they said.In addition, they called for faithful enforcement of anti-Pyongyang sanctions, noting that Russia recently vetoed a UNSC resolution to extend the mandate of an expert panel monitoring sanctions implementation. Absent the resolution, its mandate is set to end on April 30.”We call on all U.N. member states to fully implement all relevant UNSC resolutions, especially in light of Russia’s recent veto,” they said. “We urge North Korea to cease illicit activities that generate revenue for its unlawful ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs, including malicious cyber activities.”The leaders took note of the “historic success” of the trilateral summit that they and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held at Camp David in August. The summit produced a series of agreements, including the “Commitment to Consult” each other in the face of a shared threat.”Building on the historic success of the Camp David trilateral summit, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea continue to collaborate on promoting regional security, strengthening deterrence, coordinating development and humanitarian assistance, countering North Korea’s illicit cyber activities, and deepening our cooperation including on economic, clean energy, and technological issues,” they said.
uring a joint press conference, Kishida touched on “worrying” developments about North Korea.”Regarding the increasingly worrying situation, we have agreed to continue close coordination,” he said. “On top of that, we concurred that the window of a discussion with North Korea is open and we discussed that Japan, the U.S. and ROK will continue to work closely together.”The summit also underscored Japan’s pursuit of a greater security role and America’s backing for it as Tokyo decided to double its defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product in 2027, adopted “counter-strike” capabilities, relaxed arms export curbs and bolstered security cooperation with South Korea.”The United States welcomes the steps Japan is taking to fundamentally enhance its defense capabilities,” the statement read.The summit “deliverables” or agreements covered a wide range of areas, including one that enables two Japanese astronauts to join future American space missions.On the defense front, the two sides announced their intention to upgrade their respective command and control frameworks to enable “seamless integration” of operations and capabilities and allow for “greater interoperability” and planning between U.S. and Japanese forces in peacetime and during contingencies.They also unveiled their vision to work on a networked air defense architecture with Australia while welcoming progress on building an annual “multidomain” exercise between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.
At a ceremony welcoming Kishida at the White House, Biden celebrated what he called the “unbreakable” and “global” alliance between the United States and Japan.”Mr. Prime Minister, you and I have been entrusted with protecting and advancing the monumental alliance between our two great democracies,” he said. “Together. We made it closer, stronger and more effective than ever before in history.”Biden also underlined the improvement in relations between Seoul and Tokyo.”Last year, the prime minister took one of the boldest steps yet when he and President Yoon of the Republic of Korea decided to heal all wounds and start a new chapter of friendship,” he said.”Our historic summit that I hosted at Camp David marked the start of an entirely new era infused with hope, shared values and focus relentlessly forward because these leaders know that the divisions that defined us in the past do not need to define us in the future,” he said.Kishida underscored his commitment to furthering the alliance.”Together, we will lead the way in tackling the challenges of the Indo-Pacific region and the world while tirelessly developing the relationship between our countries with a view to the world 10 and even 100 years from now,” he said.Kishida arrived in the U.S. on Monday for an official visit — equivalent to a state visit, a technical term for a head of state rather than a premier — in an invitation that capped state visits by leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad that consists of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan.His trip marks the first official visit by a Japanese leader since then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2015.On Thursday, Kishida is set to deliver a speech to a joint meeting of Congress and attend the first-ever trilateral summit with Biden and Philippines President 카지노사이트킹 Ferdinand Marcos Jr