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US President Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida held a summit.
The United States reaffirmed defense cooperation with Japan, and Japan said that a new security strategy to retain counterattack capabilities would contribute to increasing the alliance's responsiveness.
Correspondent Yoon-Soo Kim from Washington.
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Japanese Prime Minister Kishida visited the White House for the first time since his inauguration.
It was the first meeting between the leaders of the United States and Japan two months after the ASEAN summit in November last year.
Prior to the summit, President Biden emphasized all-round cooperation between the US and Japan, saying that he strongly supported the defense commitments to Japan.
[Joe Biden/President of the United States: The United States is fully and thoroughly focusing on alliances and the defense of Japan.
We are also closely cooperating in the technical and economic fields.]
Prime Minister Kishida focused on explaining the new defense strategy, which was revised to allow Japan to retain its counterattack capabilities.
He stressed that this strategy will help strengthen regional security capabilities.
[Fumio Kishida/Prime Minister of Japan: I think (Japan's new defense strategy) can help strengthen deterrence capabilities and the alliance's response capabilities.
] As security threats from North Korea and North Korea are increasing, he repeatedly emphasized the need to strengthen trilateral cooperation among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan.
We also reaffirmed our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
The joint statement also included support for peace in Taiwan and strong opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
After a two-hour meeting, the leaders of the United States and Japan concluded the summit schedule without holding an unusual joint press conference and only releasing a statement.
(Video coverage: Oh Jeong-sik, Video editing: Cho Moo-hwan)