US, Japan show united front against China

US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House. Pic/AFP

The United States and Japan vowed on Friday to stand firm together against an assertive China and to step up cooperation on climate change and next-generation technology, as President Joe Biden made his first summit a show of alliance unity.

After waiting nearly three months for his first foreign guest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden told Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that Japan enjoyed the United States' "iron-clad support" on security issues and beyond. A joint statement called for "candid conversations" with China and did not hold back raising concerns over Beijing's growing maritime moves, its clampdowns in Hong Kong and growing tension over Taiwan.

The statement reiterated that the US-Japan Security Treaty covers the Japanese-administered Senkaku islands - one of several areas in the region where Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyu, has increasingly shown its might. The Chinese embassy in the United States hit back. "It cannot be more ironic that such an attempt at stoking division and building blocs against other countries is put under the banner of ‘free and open,'" a statement by the embassy.

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