On Aug. 5th, the Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and visiting U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed that their nations would continue to cooperate to maintain peace and stability in the troubled Taiwan Strait.
They met at the Prime Minister's official residence in Tokyo for about an hour and discussed not only Taiwan, but China, North Korea, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the need to work toward a world without nuclear weapons.
Pelosi arrived in Tokyo on August 4 after she visited Taiwan and met President Tsai Ing-wen. Pelosi's visit to Taiwan was the first by a U.S. House speaker to visit the island territory in 25 years.
After their meeting, Kishida met with reporters and informed Pelosi about the five Chinese ballistic missiles that landed within Japan's exclusive economic zone the previous day, as part of a military exercise.
The prime minister said that Japan issued a strong protest against China because the missiles represented a threat to Japan's national security and the safety of the people. Because China's actions will have a deep effect on the peace and stability of the region and the international community, we have asked China to immediately stop its military exercise. Kishida told Pelosi that he held high expectations for her leadership and the support of the U.S. Congress in working to strengthen the Japan-U. S. alliance and the establishment of a free and open Indo-Pacific region are some of the things that are important for the future of the region.