January 22, 2022

Amid regional tensions and domestic COVID-19 spikes, US President Joe Biden held a virtual meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday, during which they agreed to boost cooperation on pressing economic and security issues, including China's growing power, North Korea's alleged missile launches and Russia's aims in Ukraine.

It was the first virtual summit between Biden and Kishida since the Japanese Prime Minister took office in October 2021. Experts believed that seeking "common ground," or more specifically testing Tokyo's loyalty to Washington under the new Japanese leader, weighs much more for the US than anything else.

The meeting comes after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Japanese counterpart Akiba Takeo's meeting on Thursday, in which Sullivan discussed the important of the alliance, as well as approaches to most of the issues on Friday's summit. 

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