'Side By Side In Defending A Free And Open International Order': Blinken Celebrates Japan Alliance

6 months ago

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about the history and importance of the US-Japan alliance, as well as the role the relationship plays in

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Transcript

00:00 (Applause.)

00:01 Thank you.

00:02 Good afternoon, everyone.

00:03 Please, please be seated.

00:08 Mr. Prime Minister, Mrs. Kishida, Evan and I are so honored to join Vice President Harris,

00:16 Second Gentleman Emhoff in welcoming you to the State Department.

00:21 We're delighted to be joined by a remarkable group of colleagues, friends, and dignitaries.

00:27 And a special salute to our colleagues from Congress who are here, who just witnessed

00:32 your remarkable speech.

00:34 I think it may be as well the first time that anyone speaking before a joint session has

00:39 managed to reference the Flintstones.

00:41 (Laughter.)

00:42 More about that later.

00:45 Now, the very first time that the United States had the honor of hosting a delegation from

00:50 Japan was in 1860.

00:54 Their journey then took three months to get here.

00:58 Upon arriving, they were received first at the White House, then the State Department,

01:02 for what I'm told was a boisterous dinner fueled by champagne, music, and dancing.

01:08 We'll see what we can do about that.

01:11 (Laughter.)

01:13 The Japanese delegation observed a debate in the United States Senate.

01:17 And at the U.S. Naval Observatory, they gazed through a telescope for their first-ever close-up

01:22 view of the surface of the moon.

01:26 From the time of that inaugural diplomatic mission, generations of Americans and Japanese

01:31 have had their horizons expanded by the exchange between our countries.

01:36 Since Tokyo's mayor donated the first cherry trees – we've heard a lot about cherry

01:38 trees the last couple of days – to our nation's capital over a century ago, their blossoms

01:43 are a way that many of us mark the beginning of another spring, a reminder of our friendship

01:48 and its immeasurable impact on our people and on the entire world.

01:53 I shared with the Prime Minister yesterday that people come from across the United States

01:58 to Washington because of the cherry trees.

02:01 It's a remarkable thing that this has become one of the most powerful symbols of our capital,

02:07 and it's thanks to Japan.

02:10 Over these past three years, we have invested tremendous energy into making this relationship

02:16 between our countries even stronger.

02:19 We bolstered our security cooperation and increased our cooperation on renewable energy.

02:23 We're deepening collaboration on artificial intelligence, on quantum computing, and on

02:28 other technologies that will shape the 21st century.

02:32 Together with India and Australia, we've revitalized the Quad.

02:35 We've elevated trilateral cooperation with the Republic of Korea to unprecedented levels.

02:40 Today, we're taking a similarly ambitious step with the Philippines.

02:45 We're leading the G7 in meeting the fundamental challenges of our time, from helping Ukrainians

02:49 defend themselves against Russia's war of aggression to helping countries around the

02:53 world build infrastructure vital to expanding opportunity.

02:58 We're standing side by side in defending a free and open international order that, for

03:03 decades, has bolstered our shared security and prosperity.

03:08 Yet we've done all this in partnership, where the sun of Hiroshima speaks to the spirit

03:16 of healing and regeneration that animates this exceptional relationship.

03:22 Of course, the ties that bind us have been forged not only by our governments, but principally

03:30 by generations of Japanese and Americans from all walks of life.

03:36 And like the saplings that were brought here by the Prime Minister, these relationships

03:40 took root, they grew, and they branched out in ways that were probably impossible to predict.

03:46 In 1872, it was an American schoolteacher who introduced baseball to Japan.

03:52 He taught at Kaisei Academy, the same high school where the Prime Minister would eventually

03:56 play second base.

03:58 Akira Karasawa's 1954 classic, The Seventh Samurai, inspired one of our great Westerns,

04:07 The Magnificent Seven.

04:09 Decades later, the American best picture, Unforgiven, was remade in Japan, with a cowboy

04:16 traded in for a samurai in Imperial Japan.

04:19 In 1963, a Japanese trade official named Kishida Fumitaki was posted in New York City and brought

04:28 along his then six-year-old son, Fumio.

04:33 The future Prime Minister later said that his struggles at that time to express himself

04:38 in a new and unfamiliar language taught him, and I quote, "the importance of listening,"

04:44 especially to those whose voices often go unheard, and first inspired him to dream of

04:49 a career in politics.

04:52 I think anyone who heard the Prime Minister speak last night at the White House and today

04:57 before Congress know how he's mastered the ability to speak to people, but also, based

05:04 on what he says, so clearly to have listened to them.

05:08 This is a man of not only extraordinary leadership, but deep empathy that's reflected in his leadership.

05:17 Not far from here at the Smithsonian's Modern Art Museum, the record for the two most popular

05:21 exhibits are held by the same artist, Yayoi Kusama.

05:26 Many of you have seen these installations, her affinity mirror rooms, where bright, glowing,

05:31 polka-dotted covered orbs seem to extend on forever.

05:36 Early in her career, Kusama wrote a letter to the great American painter, Georgia O'Keeffe,

05:41 looking for advice.

05:43 She dreamed of moving to New York, but felt daunted.

05:48 O'Keeffe wrote back to her, "Make the leap."

05:52 Kusama did, and the rest is truly infinity.

05:57 These threads that connect our people, connect our cultures through time, they feel a little

06:03 bit like Kusama's installations, spreading with radiant, glowing ties as far as the eye

06:10 can see, including into space, where we're working together on everything from running

06:16 an international space station to using the James Webb telescope to better understand

06:20 how our universe was formed in the first place.

06:23 And now, more than 160 years after that first Japanese delegation came to the United States

06:28 and looked at the Naval Observatory through a telescope at the moon, we've agreed to be

06:34 the first two nations to step foot on its surface together and drive around on it, too.

06:40 We have a lunar rover that Japan is building, a model of which you'll be able to see when

06:44 you walk out of the State Department today.

06:46 So please, join me in raising a glass.

06:52 Thank you.

06:57 Thank you very much.

06:59 To all the places we can imagine our extraordinary friendship will take us, and even more, to

07:05 all the places we cannot even imagine in this moment, going, but where we know our determination,

07:12 our innovation, and especially our friendship and cooperation will one day allow us to walk

07:18 together.

07:19 Cheers.

07:20 Cheers.

07:21 Cheers.

07:31 And now, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure for me to hand the microphone over

07:36 to someone who, as Vice President, made her very first trip, foreign trip in that capacity,

07:43 to the Indo-Pacific, someone who has been leading our efforts these past three years

07:48 to deepen, to strengthen our ties to our most critical partners in the world.

07:53 Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States.

07:55 (Applause.)

07:55 [APPLAUSE]

'Side By Side In Defending A Free And Open International Order': Blinken Celebrates Japan Alliance

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