our top focus this hour the united states president joe biden is in tokyo for the second leg of his asia visit where he will be attending a host of key meets with allies including the fourth quad summit in a bid to boost u.s strategic presence in the indo-pacific aimed at countering increasing china threat in the region japanese prime minister fumio kishida welcomed u.s president joe biden to the country in a special ceremony where the military honor guard played the anthems of both countries in welcome following which the two leaders held bilaterals on the agenda was indo-pacific ukraine as well as multi-national trade back that biden is slated to one week later today prime minister kishida called deepening ties between the two countries to ensure a quote unquote free and open indo-pacific while the united states president reinstated american commitment to japan's defense and ensuring stability in protecting democracies in the region the two nations are also expected to discuss japan's plans to expand its military capabilities during the bilaterals and reach in response to china's growing might the u.s japanese alliance has long been the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the indo-pacific and the united states remains fully committed to japanese japan's defense and we will face the challenges today and the future together the two leaders also spoke about the ongoing ukraine war president joe biden thank japan for its stance against russia and said that putin must be held accountable for the war crimes committed in ukraine in a strong statement prime minister kishida also said that the powers in no way can allow for change of status quo by force in any part of the world uh the two leaders also discussed the multinational trade pact that biden will launch later today the indo-pacific economic framework of the ipef is a program to bind countries closer through common standards in various areas including supply chain resilience clean energy infrastructure and digital trade the ipef is unlikely to include binding commitments remember the united states currently lacks economic pact in its engagement in the region after former president donald trump withdrew from a multinational trans-pacific trade agreement in 2017. earlier in the day joe biden met with japanese emperor as well naruto at the imperial palace and the two leaders exchanged greetings very much before holding talks at the palace whitehouse said by norfolk greetings on behalf of the american people highlighting the strength of the u.s japan relationship anchored by the people-to-people ties tomorrow biden will attend the meeting of the quad grouping along with leaders of other member states india japan australia before departing for the united states and for more on this joining us live right now from tokyo is professor james dj brown who's an associate professor of political science at temple university thank you so much for joining us now my first question to you is uh how do you assess the significance of the summit between the quad leaders we know what that it is happening in the backdrop of the war in ukraine there's also an emphasis on economic frameworks cooperation what are your expectations so with the the quad summit i think the the emphasis is definitely going to be uh that this is a an active and uh reanimated uh grouping of countries earlier this year there were some concerns that the quad might be somewhat at risk and the reason for this is that clearly there wasn't agreement on the issue of russia's invasion of ukraine with india taking rather a different stance so i think one of the priorities for the japanese hosts is to to demonstrate that despite those differences when it comes to the indo-pacific there is very much agreement that the quad remains active and it's moving forward in new areas and i think as as well as the us's indo-pacific economic framework it's interesting to see that it seems likely that there's going to be agreement on a new mechanism for tracking illegal fishing in the region as well so some new areas that the quad is moving into right absolutely also when it comes to the indo-pacific like you mentioned and china's growing influence what do you think could be the quad's next steps i i think it very much is um to uh to add some further substance so originally there was some criticism of the quad fur for being a talking shop but if they can actually add more kind of substance to it by genuine initiatives like the one on tracking illegal phishing uh perhaps with some additional things to do with setting common standards in the digital economy to do with infrastructure that would add something more the main missing part at the moment however is when it comes to the us's economic engagement for a country such as japan it was a huge disappointment it was seen as a major strategic mistake by the united states not to join the trans-pacific partnership at the moment it seems that the indo-pacific economic framework is very much a second best but still for countries like japan they welcomed the united states um you know adding to the economic element because at the moment uh it's the the us and its allies are lagging far behind china and smile just the levels of investment in southeast asia and other parts of the indo-pacific right absolutely and just another major point here is the discussions between the united states and japan on expanding japan's military capabilities now what is your assessment answer of that so i think it's best to see this as an acceleration so japan famously has its peace constitution article 9 which prevents it from going to war but over the subsequent decades there's been a gradual erosion of that with japan doing more becoming a more capable ally of the united states but with russia's invasion of ukraine it's really driven home to japanese policymakers the extent of japan's insecurity at one point it could rely exclusively on the united states that was enough now the us is still seen as an absolutely vital partner but japan needs to do more itself so that process of japan um really becoming more of a kind of normal security actor stretching the bounds of those constitutional restraints and moving into new areas that's really moving forward more quickly and so the thing to in particular look out for is japan increasing its defense spending taking it up to around two percent of gdp and also developing capabilities such as counter-strike capabilities to actually hit targets in foreign countries all right well professor james g gibran thank you so much for joining us with your analysis of this beyond is now available in your country download the app now get all the news on the move
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