Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden's call for reforming the United Nations during a brief conversation on Wednesday on the sidelines of a U.N. gathering of world leaders, according to the Japanese government.

U.S. President Joe Biden (L) chats with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in New York on Sept. 21, 2022. (Photo courtesy of Japan's Cabinet Public Affairs Office)(Kyodo)

During a speech before the U.N. General Assembly the same day, Biden expressed his support for expanding the membership of the U.N. Security Council, which Japan has long been hoping to become part of.

The two leaders agreed to continue to cooperate on U.N. reform. They also reaffirmed the need to beef up the bilateral alliance in the face of an increasingly severe security environment in the Indo-Pacific region, where China has become more militarily assertive.


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