Japanese PM expected to be Biden’s first foreign visit at White House

President Biden’s first in-person meeting with a foreign leader in Washington, D.C., will be with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, according to a senior administration official, though the timing of the meeting has not been decided.

“We’ve not established yet a firm date for this, but we are working closely to ensure that this is convenient and that the standards are in place on both sides,” a senior administration official told reporters.

The meeting will be significant, particularly because Biden has not yet met with a foreign leader in person since taking office. Japan represents a key U.S. ally in the Pacific, and Suga was elected prime minister of Japan last September, succeeding Shinzo Abe.

Officials declined to give a timeline on the meeting, saying only that both sides were working to find a mutually convenient date. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in February that Biden was unlikely to meet in person with a foreign leader for “a couple of months.”

“We are looking forward to it and we have already begun some consultations about areas that we want to enhance our cooperation,” the official said.

Biden has held bilateral virtual meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Biden will virtually meet with Suga as well as other leaders of members of the “Quad,” an informal strategic group comprised of the U.S., Australia, India and Japan. It will be the first-ever meeting of the heads of state of the Quad countries. The group is expected to announce commitments to expand vaccine manufacturing and delivery and to announce working groups on vaccines and climate change.

Officials also recently announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will travel together to Japan and South Korea next week.