The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President's chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President's foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
FOREIGN MINISTER KAMIKAWA: (Via interpreter) I would like to mention three points.
First of all, the strengthening and maintenance of the economic order in the Indo-Pacific. I apologize.
As the host of the second Economic 2+2 Ministerial Meeting, I welcome you all and I’m glad we’re able
to have this meeting. Secretary Blinken, thank you very much for the close communication we have
been maintaining on a routine basis. Secretary Raimondo, following the IPEF Ministerial this
morning, it’s a pleasure to see you again and to continue on with our discussions.
Protracted aggression of Ukraine by Russia; unstable and vulnerable supply chain;
global energy and food crisis; and on top of that, the current situation between Israel
and Palestine – these are some of the mounting issues the international community faces. At
the same time, however, partnership between likeminded countries is steadily advancing,
as seen in the delivery of a strong message at the G7 Hiroshima Summit,
coordination of policy on AI governance, and cooperation over semiconductors.
I look forward to discussing with you today the direction for Japan and the
U.S. to proceed as we strive to strengthen a rules-based economic order in this region and,
at the same time, to elevate resilience of both countries.
MODERATOR: Thank you.
Next, Minister Nishimura, please.
ECONOMY MINISTER NISHIMURA: (Via interpreter) Once again, I am (inaudible) Minister Nishimura
Yasutoshi. As you heard, diplomacy, security policy, and economic policies are nowadays
inseparable. Based on this notion, we are meeting today at the second meeting of Economic 2+2
that Prime Minister Kishida and President Biden created last year. We are very glad to be here.
Besides next-generation semiconductors and quantum, AI, biotech, and other
critical emerging technologies, supply chain resiliency of critical minerals,
and batteries and energy security, over one year – thanks to this Economic 2+2
Japan and United States partnership – were able to expand into a new domain.
Well, Secretary Raimondo, I have met you many times and we have conversed over telephone many
times and have had a frequent exchange. Once again, thank you for that, Madam Secretary.
And hence, seeing the prolongation of Russia’s aggression, tension in Middle East,
geopolitical risks are rising and moves to use economic interdependency as weapons
as well as market-distorting measures are the new challenges that we are faced with;
in transparent and opaque way to counter attempts to enhance competitiveness in
opaque and unfair way; and to control the market, likeminded countries should
go beyond the industrial sector demarcation and cooperate through alignment in the actual policy.
This kind of totally new approach is needed. Japan and U.S., we share the universal value
to jointly tackle threat to economic order, and converge in resilient economic security
will be a foundation going beyond our bilateral relationship, and this will
surely bring peace and prosperity vitally to the Indo-Pacific. This is my firm belief.
I am looking forward to a frank discussion today with you, and let us send a powerful
message to the rest of the world for San Francisco in united manner. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you, Minister.
Next, Secretary Blinken, please.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, thank you very much, colleagues. It’s very good to be with you. Our
alliance between the United States and Japan has long been a cornerstone for regional peace,
security, and prosperity, but I think we are taking it to a new level across
all domains. And the more we’re able to align our economic, our technological,
and other key strategies to build an allied industrial base, supply chains,
industries of the future, the more we are going to maximize our ability to
deliver for our people across the board in what they need and are looking for.
This has been a remarkable year for our alliance. We had, of course, the prime
minister’s visit to Washington, President Biden’s visit to Hiroshima for the G7, and
then the historic Camp David summit. We’ve also had important outcomes from your G7 presidency,
and I was very appreciative of the last session, Yoko, that you – that you chaired in Japan;
also our APEC host year that we’re completing now; IPEF; as well as the Quad Leaders’ Meeting.
Our countries are working to advance a rules-based economic order to counter
economic coercion and to allow innovation to thrive. These issues matter for the United
States. They matter for Japan. They matter for our many partners in the Indo-Pacific and
well beyond. And indeed, our alliance, our partnership is not just bilateral,
it’s not just regional, it’s genuinely global. That alliance – our Economic 2+2 – we see as
force multipliers for strengthening a free, open, prosperous Indo-Pacific.
So it’s very good to be with you.
SECRETARY RAIMONDO: Thank you. Thank you, colleagues. It is wonderful to be here with
all of you, and it’s an honor for me to join this 2+2. The 2+2 allows our nations to discuss
the most pressing challenges that we share and to collaborate and solve problems together and
find opportunities to yield real benefits for our economies and the citizens of both of our nations.
We’re working together to counter the use of economic coercion, as has been said,
by state actors; to promote and protect critical and emerging technologies like
artificial intelligence, cyber, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology; and to tighten
alignment on export controls in the wake of Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine.
We’re also rapidly increasing our efforts to strengthen our semiconductor supply
chain – Minister Nishimura and I spoke about this earlier – and promote the development
of clean technologies very much to the benefit of both of our nations.
I want to thank both of you for your strong support of the IPEF. We had an excellent
ministerial earlier today, closing out the three pillars of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
So thank you both, especially Minister Nishimura who’s been working on this with me for some time.
As Secretary Blinken said, our relationship has never been stronger. The U.S.-Japan
relationship has never been stronger, and I am confident that our cooperation will bring
even greater opportunity and prosperity to the Indo-Pacific region. So thank you.
