This combo photo shows US President Joe Biden (right) and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. (PHOTOS / AP)
TOKYO – Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is likely to meet US President Joe Biden on April 9, the first foreign leader to meet the president in the White House, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday.
The two are expected to agree to strengthen the bilateral alliance and their commitment to the freedom of passage in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Yomiuri reported without citing sources.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato has said that PM Yoshihide Suga will make the visit in the first half of April
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Calls to the prime minister’s office were not answered. Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said on Friday that Suga will make the visit in the first half of April.
Suga’s predecessor, Shinzo Abe, was the first foreign leader to meet Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, soon after he was elected president in 2016.
Biden and Suga joined the leaders of India and Australia in a virtual summit on Friday, vowing the “Quad” nations would supply up to a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine across Asia by the end of 2022.
READ MORE: Japan says timing of Biden-Suga meeting undecided