tokyo us president joe biden on monday endorsed japans plan to beef up its defence capabilities as he and prime minister fumio kishida committed to working closely to counter chinas growing influence in asia biden on his first trip to asia since taking office is visiting the region as concern grows about chinas assertiveness and reach across security and supply chains the us president commended kishidas determination to strengthen japans defence capabilities the white house said in a statement following their meeting the two leaders committed to working closely on chinas increasingly coercive behaviour that runs counter to international law it said the two were expected to hold a joint news conference separately public broadcaster nhk said that biden supported japan becoming a permanent member of the un security council the cornerstone of bidens visit which includes meetings with the leaders of japan india and australia in the quad group will be the launch of an indopacific economic framework a broad plan providing an economic pillar for us engagement with asia the usjapan alliance has long been the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the indopacific and the united states remains fully committed to japans defence biden said at the beginning of talks with kishida at the akasaka palace in central tokyo earlier he met emperor naruhito talking briefly at the palace entrance before being ushered inside the white house said biden offered greetings on behalf of the american people highlighting the strength of the usjapan relationship it shows that the united states will strengthen its involvement in the indopacific region no matter what the circumstances kishida said ahead of their meeting worries are growing in asia about an increasingly assertive china particularly in light of its close ties to russia and tension has risen over selfruled taiwan which china considers a renegade province economic pillar north korea will also be on the agenda with biden later on monday scheduled to meet families of japanese who were abducted years ago to train spies in north korea but the centrepiece will be the us leaders launch of the indopacific economic framework for prosperity ipef a programme to bind countries more closely through common standards in areas including supplychain resilience clean energy infrastructure and digital trade the united states has lacked an economic pillar to its indopacific engagement since former president donald trump withdrew from a multinational transpacific trade agreement leaving the field open to china to expand its influence but the ipef is unlikely to include binding commitments and asian countries and trade experts have given a lukewarm response to a programme limited by bidens reluctance to risk american jobs by offering the increased market access the region craves indias prime minister narendra modi is due in japan for the quad talks with australias new prime minister anthony albanese also expected biden arrived in japan late on sunday from south korea and will leave on tuesday for the united states