Biden seeks unity with Japan's Suga against China's assertiveness at first White House summit

The meeting was also expected to yield steps for diversifying supply chains seen as over-reliant on Beijing and a $2 billion commitment from Japan to work with the United States on alternatives to the 5G network of Chinese firm Huawei, a senior U.S. official said earlier. The summit, Biden's first in-person meeting with a foreign leader as president, was expected to produce a formal statement on Taiwan, a Chinese-claimed, self-ruled island under increasing military pressure from Beijing, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

President Joe Biden on Friday sought to present a united front with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to counter an increasingly assertive China as the U.S. leader held his first face-to-face White House summit since taking office. Biden hosted Suga for talks that offered the Democratic president, who took office in January, a chance to work further on his pledge to revitalize U.S. alliances that frayed under his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.

China topped the agenda, underscoring Japan's central role in U.S. efforts to face down the challenge from Beijing. "We committed to working together to take on the challenges from China and on issues like the East China Sea, the South China Sea, as well as North Korea, to ensure a future of a free and open Indo Pacific," Biden told a Rose Garden news conference, calling discussions "productive."

Other main concerns at the talks included China's growing military pressure on Taiwan, its tightening grip on Hong Kong and its crackdown on Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang. The meeting was also expected to yield steps for diversifying supply chains seen as over-reliant on Beijing and a $2 billion commitment from Japan to work with the United States on alternatives to the 5G network of Chinese firm Huawei, a senior U.S. official said earlier.

The summit, Biden's first in-person meeting with a foreign leader as president, was expected to produce a formal statement on Taiwan, a Chinese-claimed, self-ruled island under increasing military pressure from Beijing, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It would be the first joint statement on Taiwan by U.S. and Japanese leaders since 1969. However, it appears likely to fall short of what Washington has been hoping from Suga, who inherited a China policy that sought to balance security concerns with economic ties when he took over as premier last September.