Joe Biden vowed to strengthen the US alliance with Japan to contain growing Chinese military activity in the volatile Asia-Pacific region, including a commitment to defend Senkakus, a group of islands in the East China Sea administered by Tokyo but claimed by Beijing .
The President and Prime Minister of the United States, Yoshihide Suga, agreed during a phone call that their countries’ security alliance was “the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
Biden’s promise to strengthen security arrangements in the region contrasted with the approach of Donald Trump, who publicly considered withdrawing troops from Japan and South Korea, both important U.S. allies.
Trump also complained that Tokyo and Seoul were not paying enough for their own security and asked them to buy more defense equipment made in the United States.
“We managed to have substantial exchanges,” said Suga after his 30-minute call with Biden. “We have agreed to strengthen our alliance firmly, receiving more calls like this.”
Biden reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to provide “extended deterrence” to Japan, a reference to the U.S. nuclear umbrella, the White House said in a statement.
They also agreed on the need for complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, as speculation about how Biden plans to get involved with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un about his nuclear and ballistic missile programs increases.
Japan is particularly concerned about the frequent incursions of Chinese ships into waters near the Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China.
Biden’s “unshakable commitment” to defend the Senkakus was expected, but took on extra significance, occurring a week after Beijing passed legislation that authorized coast guard ships to use weapons against foreign ships considered to be involved in illegal activities around uninhabited island chain.
The two did not discuss the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, whose future is in doubt as the world continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said.
Suga’s predecessor, Shinzo Abe, established a relationship with Trump during golf rounds in Japan and the U.S., and was the first world leader to meet him after his victory in the 2016 elections.
Suga said he hopes to “deepen my personal relationship with President Biden”, adding that he planned to visit Washington as soon as the coronavirus pandemic allowed.
Media reports in Japan said the two leaders had agreed to call each other Joe and Yoshi.
Biden’s secretary of state, Antony Blinken, had previously told Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin that the US has rejected China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea beyond what is permitted by international law.
Blinken said Washington is on the side of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries, resisting pressure from Beijing, which has claimed large areas of the South China Sea.
“Secretary Blinken promised to support applicants from Southeast Asia in the face of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] pressure, ”the state department said in a statement.
China has almost the entire South China Sea, rich in energy, which is also an important trade route. Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.
The United States has accused China of taking advantage of the distraction created by the coronavirus pandemic to increase its presence in the South China Sea.
Blinken, who joined the Biden government this week, “stressed that the United States rejects China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea to the extent that they exceed the maritime zones that China is authorized to claim under international law” , said the statement.
U.S.-China relations have deteriorated under Trump because of a number of issues, including trade, the pandemic, Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong’s democratic movement and its persecution of Uighur Muslims.