President Barack Obama welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the White House on Tuesday for an official state visit expected to focus on expanding bilateral defense and economic ties.
Ahead of the visit, Abe and other top Japanese officials met their U.S. counterparts in New York on Monday and agreed to tighten their defense alliance, a move widely seen as a response to China’s growing power.
The revised guidelines help Japan play a larger part in international conflicts, allowing Tokyo to come to the defense of a third country and strengthening its role in missile defense, mine sweeping, and ship inspections.
It is the first time in 18 years the U.S. and Japan have revised their defense guidelines. The move follows Japan’s decision last year to reinterpret its pacifist constitution to allow for collective self-defense.
“Today we mark the establishment of Japan’s capacity to defend not just its own territory, but also the United States and other partners, as needed,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at a news conference.
Kerry also provided fresh assurances that a group of islands claimed by both China and Japan fall under the scope of a mutual defense treaty, meaning Washington is obliged to come to Tokyo’s aid in the event the islands are attacked.
East China Sea islands, known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu, have become a major irritant to China-Japan ties. China also has worsening territorial disputes with several other neighbors in the nearby South China Sea.
The talks between Abe and Obama are also expected to focus on a proposed U.S.-Asia free trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes 12 countries but excludes China.
Negotiators are said to be nearing an agreement on lifting trade restrictions on several key U.S. and Japanese products. Such a breakthrough would be seen as a crucial step toward realizing the TPP.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Monday, Obama defended the trade pact, saying it will play an important part in securing America’s interests in the future.
“If we don’t write the rules, China will write the rules in the region. We will be shut out — American businesses and American agriculture. That will mean a loss of U.S. jobs,” Obama said.
Obama will roll out the red carpet for Abe on Tuesday, hosting a glitzy state dinner at the White House. On Wednesday, the Japanese president will receive the rare honor of delivering a speech to both houses of Congress.
Abe’s address, which roughly coincides with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, will be closely watched for any comments about Japan’s wartime past.
Many Asian victims of Japanese imperial aggression have criticized Abe for what they see as his attempts to minimize his country’s wartime atrocities.
During a speech Monday in New York, Prime Minister Abe spoke of his “deep remorse” over Japan’s wartime aggression. But as in previous remarks, he stopped short of the language used in landmark apologies made by his predecessors in 1995 and 2005.
During a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington on Monday, Abe said his heart was “filled with a solemn feeling” for the victims who died.
President Obama and Prime Minister Abe also paid an unannounced visit to Washington’s Lincoln Memorial, one of the city’s most iconic sites.
The two leaders paid a quiet tribute to President Abraham Lincoln — assassinated 150 years ago this month after a bitter and bloody Civil War.
A White House official called Monday’s visit by the president and prime minister “an opportunity… to spend time together one-on-one at a place of historical significance for the United States.”
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