US President Joe Biden announced a new economic partnership in Asia-Pacific at a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday.
The agreement includes 13 countries, including the United States and Japan, but without China, which is skeptical.
The India-Oceania Economic Framework is not a free trade agreement, but it provides greater integration between member countries in four key areas: digital economy, supply chain, clean energy infrastructure and anti-corruption.
“The partnership between Washington and Tokyo is deepening over the years,” the president told a news conference.
The India-Pacific Economic Framework is not a free trade agreement, but it provides greater integration between member countries in four key areas: digital economy, supply chain, clean energy infrastructure and the fight against corruption.
Biden also said the United States would “assist Taiwan in defending itself against any Chinese aggression.”
Fumio Kishida, for his part, confirmed that he had agreed with Biden to “strengthen cooperation and defense between the two countries” and stressed that “the presence of American troops in Japan will be strengthened.”
“We stressed the need to strengthen the partnership between Tokyo and Washington and to strengthen Japan’s defense capabilities,” he added.
Japan Broadcasting Corporation said earlier Monday that Biden “supports Japan’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council.”
Calls for reform have recently increased in the UN Security Council, which has 15 members, including five permanent members, the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the trip comes as relations between the United States and China have soured, and the Chinese foreign minister responded by saying, “America’s diplomatic strategy in Asia is doomed to failure.”
Secretary Wang Yi believes that the “so-called India-Pacific Strategy” adopted by the United States “is at the core of the strategy of divisiveness, incitement to confrontation and undermining peace, and no matter how complicated or hidden it will be inevitably.” “In the end, they will fail.”
Source: Lebanon Debate
