By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, MARI YAMAGUCHI AND AAMER MADHANI | Associated Press | Published: April 16, 2021
WASHINGTON — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga called for a strong alliance with the United States on Friday as he headed into Joe Biden's first face-to-face talks with a foreign leader as president, a meeting underscoring Biden's emphasis on alliances to deal with an increasingly assertive China.
Biden and Suga also were looking to counter messaging from Chinese President Xi Jinping that America and democracies in general are on the decline, after the political turmoil and international withdrawal that marked Donald Trump's presidency.
The Biden administration calls managing U.S. policies toward the Indo-Pacific, where China under Xi is flexing growing economic and military power, the primary challenge for the United States. That helped guide Biden's decision, announced this week, to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and free the administration to focus more on East Asia.