Biden hosts Suga in Washington. AFP

Gulf Today Report 

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Friday met with President Joe Biden in the White House, he is the first foreign leader to visit the White House since Biden’s inauguration.

The one-day summit is expected to yield steps diversifying supply chains seen as over-reliant on China 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 US official said.

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Biden and Suga would also be discussing human rights issues related to China.

It is also expected that the summit would lead to a formal statement on Taiwan, a Chinese-claimed, self-ruled island under increasing military pressure from Beijing.

With his first in-person summit with Suga, and another planned with South Korea in May, Biden is working to focus on the Indo-Pacific to manage China’s rising power, which he sees as the critical foreign policy issue of the era.