Tokyo [Japan]: Amid the growing aggression from China, US President Joe Biden is expected to form close ties with presumed next Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. This came following Kishida’s victory in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Presidential elections after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided to pull out of the party’s presidential election, Kyodo News reported. Experts believe that the Biden administration will also likely be closely watching whether Kishida can solidify his grip on power and avoid Japan returning to an era of so-called revolving-door leadership. Michael Green who is a Senior Vice President at a Washington think tank said that Japan is in every area of competition with China that the US cares about, from technology and defence to democracy and diplomacy. He also said that Biden is certain to embrace the next Japanese prime minister ‘very quickly’ because his administration needs ‘strong Japanese leadership’. “There is a measure of, if not desperation, about the US-Japan alliance because of the way China under (President) Xi Jinping has become so aggressive, so ambitious, and so coercive. So there’s an urgency to this alliance,” Green was quoted as saying by Kyodo News. Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a telephone call with his American counterpart and expressed that US policy has resulted in ‘serious difficulties in bilateral relations and runs counter to fundamental interests of the people in both countries and the common interests of all countries as well, state media reported.
