by Elaine Lies and David Brunnstrom
TOKYO/WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are due to discuss security issues on Friday amid growing threats from China, North Korea’s missile programs and Russia’s military deployment on the Ukrainian border.
The virtual meeting will mark the first major talk between the two leaders since Fumio Kishida came to power in Tokyo last October.
It comes in the wake of high-level ministerial talks conducted in a “two plus two” format (foreign ministers and defense ministers) earlier this month between the two countries.
Washington and Tokyo agreed on this occasion to work to strengthen their cooperation in the face of emerging defense threats. nL8N2TN091
Separately, ahead of the virtual meeting between Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Japanese counterpart Takeo Akiba discussed their respective approaches to South Korea on Thursday. North, China and economic issues in the Indo-Pacific, reported the US presidency.
The White House has announced that Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida will discuss security and economic topics, cybersecurity, climate change and other bilateral issues.
(Reporting Elaine Lies in Tokyo and David Brunnstrom in Washington, with Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; French version Jean Terzian)
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