par Trevor Hunnicutt et David Brunnstrom
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will present a united front on Taiwan at a summit meeting on Friday, according to a senior US administration official.
Joe Biden and Yoshihide Suga are expected to agree on a joint statement regarding the island claimed by China but democratically governed, during the US president’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader, said the official, who said is expressed on condition of anonymity.
Joe Biden and Yoshihide Suga will also discuss Beijing’s treatment of Muslims in the Xinjiang region and its influence over Hong Kong, while announcing a $ 2 billion (€ 1.67 billion) Japanese investment in 5G telecommunications. to counter the Chinese Huawei.
“You have seen a series of statements from the United States and Japan on the circumstances of the Taiwan Strait, on our desire to maintain peace and stability, on preserving the status quo, and I expect you to see both an official statement and consultations on these issues, “senior administration official Biden told reporters.
The last time the US and Japanese leaders referred to Taiwan in a joint statement was in 1969, before Tokyo normalized relations with Beijing. This initiative now aims to strengthen the pressure on China.
However, this statement may not be what the United States hoped for from Yoshihide Suga, who inherited a Chinese policy aimed at balancing security concerns and deep economic ties when he took office as Prime Minister last September.
DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
A representative of the Japanese Foreign Ministry said this week that it had not been decided whether there would be a joint statement and two Japanese parliamentarians said representatives were divided over whether Yoshihide Suga should approve. a strong statement on Taiwan.
The US official said Washington expected “each of our countries to have slightly different perspectives” and would not insist “that Japan somehow adhere to all dimensions of our country. approach”.
“We also recognize the deep economic and trade ties between Japan and China and Prime Minister Suga wants to take a cautious path, and we respect that,” he added.
With his first face-to-face summit with Yoshihide Suga, and another scheduled with the leader of South Korea in May, Joe Biden is working to focus US military and diplomatic resources on the Indo-Pacific region and management. of China’s rise to power, which he sees as a crucial foreign policy issue today.
“The big questions that play out right now are in the Western Pacific, and Afghanistan was really receiving a disproportionate amount of time and attention from the top leadership,” the US official said, after Joe Biden said. announced its intention to withdraw US forces from Afghanistan by September 11.
A UNI “QUAD”
The US president hopes to boost joint efforts with Australia, India and Japan, known as the “Quad” (quadrilateral security dialogue), plus South Korea, to counter China and an enemy of long, North Korea. Joe Biden and Yoshihide Suga are expected to announce plans for the next Quad meeting on Friday, the official said.
Presenting a united front will require a delicate balancing act given Japan and South Korea’s economic ties to China and icy relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
“It is worrying for us, to the point of being painful, to see relations between Japan and South Korea fall to the current level,” said the American official.
“The political tensions are such that we believe it hampers our ability to be effective in North East Asia and I think the President will want to discuss this in detail with Prime Minister Suga.”
Relations between Tokyo and Seoul deteriorated due to issues related to the colonization of Korea by Japan between 1910 and 1945, especially with regard to Korean women forced to work in Japanese brothels during the war.
(French version Camille Raynaud)
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