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00:00 from the so-called Group of Seven, G7,
00:02 a meeting in Japan this week.
00:03 And the US President Joe Biden has arrived early
00:06 for private talks with the country's Prime Minister,
00:08 Fumio Kishida.
00:09 We can see at the moment, they're all sitting gathered.
00:12 They just said hello to the US President
00:14 and the Japanese leader.
00:16 Well, one of the top issues on the agenda
00:19 is the growing military influence
00:21 and the geopolitical stance of China.
00:23 And also, of course, Ukraine conflict
00:25 expected to dominate the talks.
00:27 Well, let's get a sense of what's going on
00:29 from our man on the International Affairs desk,
00:33 Oliver Farrie.
00:34 Oliver, Joe Biden arriving,
00:36 private talks first with the Japanese Prime Minister.
00:39 What's on their agenda?
00:40 - Well, most likely the security situation
00:43 in the East Asia region will be top of the list.
00:45 Japan has become increasingly wary
00:48 of China's ambitions in the region.
00:50 A flotilla of Chinese warships
00:52 circumnavigated Japan's main islands last week,
00:55 supposedly in response to what Chinese state media
00:58 called Japan's provocative remarks on Taiwan.
01:02 Now, Japan has stepped up military spending in recent years.
01:05 This year's budget is 6.8 trillion yen,
01:09 or 48 billion euros.
01:11 Now, that's a 26% rise on last year,
01:14 the biggest year on year since 1952.
01:17 We can see it here.
01:19 There are even talks of revising
01:20 the country's pacifist constitution,
01:23 which dates back to the American occupation in 1947,
01:27 particularly Article 9,
01:29 which renounces war on behalf of the Japanese state.
01:33 Japan has also been taking part in war exercises
01:36 with American troops, one in March this year,
01:38 simulated defending and recapturing remote islands
01:41 with the intention clearly being
01:43 a potential Chinese invasion.
01:45 China has a claim on Japan's Ryukyu Islands,
01:48 which include Okinawa,
01:50 and were historically a Chinese tributary state.
01:53 Now, this may all sound very far-fetched,
01:55 and Japan is not on a war footing far from it,
01:58 but it's a marked change from previous times.
02:00 China likes to say that other countries in the region
02:03 are being puppets of the United States,
02:06 but while Washington clearly has its own motives
02:10 for involvement in the region,
02:12 these countries themselves,
02:13 be they Japan, be they South Korea, or Taiwan,
02:16 they clearly have their own motives as well.
02:19 - Interesting, just watching the images live
02:21 behind you in Hiroshima,
02:22 between those conversations between Joe Biden
02:25 and the Japanese prime minister,
02:26 you can see they're talking through translators
02:28 at the moment, and as you say,
02:30 you have to watch the subtleties here,
02:32 the fact that they are meeting,
02:33 Japan toughening up its own defence,
02:36 all of a sudden becoming a key player for Joe Biden,
02:38 a strategic player.
02:40 All of the other leaders arrive tomorrow.
02:42 Give us a sense of,
02:44 is there something that the US is trying to come out with?
02:46 Is there an overall communique that's likely to be agreed on
02:50 with an agenda being set?
02:52 - Well, the United States is probably being realistic enough
02:55 to know that other G7 countries
02:57 are not going to blindly follow Washington
03:00 on every aspect of relations with China,
03:02 but it would nonetheless like
03:03 there to be a certain coherence in the messaging.
03:06 Emmanuel Macron's comments on his trip to China last month
03:09 raised a lot of eyebrows,
03:10 and were actually welcomed in Beijing.
03:13 He said that Europe should resist pressure
03:16 to blindly follow Washington in everything,
03:20 but the United States is probably not losing
03:23 that much sleep over them.
03:24 They'll see them as rhetoric,
03:26 very, very common among French presidents,
03:29 particularly Macron.
03:30 What they're more interested in
03:31 is common security commitments,
03:33 particularly in the South Pacific and Taiwan.
03:37 Emmanuel Macron said that Taiwan may not be Europe's crisis,
03:40 but there's no sense either
03:42 that there is a serious wavering
03:44 among Western countries on the matter.
03:47 Europe is less likely to go along
03:49 with Washington's avowed policy of decoupling on China,
03:53 but Ursula von der Leyen's term, de-risking,
03:56 is probably more accurate
03:58 in terms of what Washington itself is doing.
04:00 The US is not completely disengaging from China.
04:03 It is reducing its dependency,
04:05 but it's not completely cutting out all trade,
04:09 mainly because other countries in the region's
04:11 possible alternatives aren't really there
04:14 because of logistical limitations.
04:15 So Europe and the US might be closer than they appear.
04:18 What Joe Biden, however, would like to see is
04:21 that they ensure that European countries in particular
04:23 do not let up on criticism simply because of trade.
04:26 Ukraine actually makes this rather easy.
04:29 Chinese Special Envoy Li Hui is trying to get,
04:33 is trying to get European countries on board
04:37 to see China as a serious peace envoy,
04:40 but that's probably not going to go down
04:43 too well in Europe as of yet.
04:45 - Oliver, almost orchestrated perfectly
04:46 'cause the round table for the press
04:48 where you have this five minutes to see what's going on.
04:50 They're all smiles between the two leaders
04:51 just finishing behind you as we speak.
04:53 Oliver Ferry, thank you from our international desk.