Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is coming to Washington this week for a potentially critical summit with President Joe Biden – particularly on China, which Tokyo publicly identifies as a major threat.
Just a few weeks ago, Kishida announced a historic “turning point” in Tokyo’s security policy, promising to double its defense budget over the next five years to 2% of gross domestic product, the NATO goal, making Japan’s military surpass only that of the US and China.
Biden paralyzed U.S. strategic eager about the Beijing threat, obsessed as a substitute with negotiating the issue of climate change. Fortunately, our allies are advancing without us.
Prior to arriving here, Kishida will sign a historic agreement with Britain providing for mutual treatment of soldiers in the country, thus facilitating joint military exercises and training. While not as far-reaching as the fundamental 1951 Tokyo-Washington Status of Forces agreement, the recent Japan-Britain agreement is a crucial step in constructing structures for the collective defense of the Indo-Pacific.
Furthermore, spurred by Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine and its implications for Asia, Japan is showing renewed determination to act far from its immediate region, unprecedented aid to Ukraineincluding non-lethal military equipment.
These Japanese initiatives correspond to British leadership in providing assistance to Ukraine. Since February 24, successive UK governments have consistently surpassed the Biden administration in each political and military support for Kiev. In Asia, the UK played a key catalyst role in establishing the “AUKUS” trilateral partnership with the US to develop and construct nuclear-powered submarines for the Australian Navy.
![Kishida recently announced that Japan will double its defense budget over the next five years.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/japan-pm.jpg?w=1024)
Nonetheless, all is not well with the global West’s response to the Beijing threat, as reflected by the continuing, worrying lack of American leadership. For instance, Germany stands in sharp contrast to Japan and the UK. Despite Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s declaration of a “deep change” in German security policy just days after Moscow’s attack on Ukraine, Berlin fails achieve key goals, including increasing defense spending to 2% of GDP this 12 months and spending €100 billion ($106 billion) on defense assets reminiscent of 30 nuclear-capable F-35s.
What should occur at the Kishida-Biden Summit – but probably won’t – is the starting of constructing the elements of a grand recent strategy to counter China and its growing alliance with Russia. Japan’s groundbreaking budget is increasing, its European reach and understanding of the Sino-Russian threat contrast dramatically with the overall timidity of the Biden administration.
Kishida should push for rather more activity in the Asian “Quad” (India, Japan, Australia and the US), which Biden actually supports by continuing to push his members towards concrete collective action. Reflecting AUKUS, boosting Japan’s navy’s capability with nuclear-powered submarines could have huge advantages in East Asia.
Biden, in turn, should show how his defense budgets will help rejuvenate the U.S. military-industrial base, in order that even good ideas like AUKUS don’t undermine our own defense capabilities, which each Republicans and Democrats fear.
Biden and Kishida should propose making South Korea a full member of the Quad (creating “Quint”), which is perfectly reasonable given the threats from North Korea and China. Indeed, on Latest 12 months’s Day, Kim Jong Un ordered an “exponential increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal,” specifically including tactical nuclear weapons for use against the South, which also threatens Japan, and deployed US forces.
Even before Kim’s final threat, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol weighed in calls for the redeployment of US nuclear weapons on the peninsula or develop Seoul’s own nuclear weapons.
![Biden and Kishida are likely to talk about China's threat to other nations in Asia.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/01/xi-jinping.jpg?w=1024)
Japan and South Korea have a long, complicated history, which has prevented extensive tripartite cooperation with Washington. This story can’t be ignored, but Biden should do his best to help Tokyo and Seoul move closer together in collective defense deals.
Taiwan’s security, which has huge bipartisan support, must also be at the top of the Kishida-Biden agenda. Beijing’s bellicose stance towards Taipei continues to intensify, including repeated incursions by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwanese airspace.
The world is increasingly, albeit slowly, realizing the need to stop Chinese aggression. Former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen recently visited Taipei, calling for “further strengthening ties between Taiwan and Europe”, a crucial signal of growing support for the island nation. Closer planning between Japan, America, other Asian partners and NATO allies needs to be a priority.
Even Biden officials admit that China’s recent behavior is increasingly militant. This week’s Kishida-Biden Summit is the right forum to each reveal allied solidarity against China’s unacceptable conduct and rally others in Asia and Europe against the growing threat from China.
John Bolton was President Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor in 2018-19 and US Ambassador to the United Nations in 2005-2006.