Japan PM asks US to overcome ‘self-doubt’
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses a joint meeting of Congress
Washington – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday called on Americans to overcome their “self-doubt” as he offered a paean to US global leadership before a bitterly divided Congress.
Warning of risks from the rise of China, Kishida said that Japan — stripped of its right to a military after World War II — was determined to do more to share responsibility with its ally the United States.
“As we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be,” Kishida told a joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate during a state visit to Washington.
“The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges, challenges from those with values and principles very different from ours,” said Kishida, speaking in fluent English.
Kishida said he understood “the exhaustion of being the country that has upheld the international order almost single-handedly” but added: “The leadership of the United States is indispensable.”
“Without US support, how long before the hopes of Ukraine would collapse under the onslaught from Moscow?” he asked.
“Without the presence of the United States, how long before the Indo-Pacific would face even harsher realities?”
While he was careful not to touch on US domestic politics, Kishida’s address comes amid a deadlock in Congress on approving billions of dollars in additional military aid to Ukraine, due to pressure from hard-right Republicans aligned with presidential contender Donald Trump.
Kishida met Wednesday with President Joe Biden where they pledged to step up defense cooperation, including with new three-way air defenses involving the United States, Japan and Australia.
Sending a clear signal toward China, Kishida will meet again with Biden later Thursday for a three-way summit with President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, which has been on the receiving end of increasingly assertive Chinese moves in dispute-rife waters.
Kishida said that China’s military actions “present an unprecedented, and the greatest, security challenge.”
China’s actions pose challenges “not only to the peace and security of Japan but to the peace and stability of the international community at large,” he said.