AFP, TOKYO
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted during a visit to Tokyo yesterday that ties with Japan were stronger than ever, days after US President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s takeover of US Steel.
Business groups say the move could have a chilling effect on Japan’s standing as the biggest foreign investor in the US, just as Washington seeks closer relations to counter China.
Two weeks before US president-elect Donald Trump takes office, and with Marco Rubio slated to replace Blinken, the top US diplomat recalled that he came to Japan on his first trip in 2021.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi in Tokyo yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The visits at the beginning and end of his tenure show “the centrality of the US-Japan alliance” for Washington, Blinken told reporters after meeting Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
“As we look at the last four years, we’ve seen an alliance, a partnership, a friendship, that’s grown stronger than it’s ever been,” Blinken said.
He pointed to expanding security ties — including three-way partnerships with South Korea and the Philippines, and a four-way grouping with Australia and India.
“Our economies are extraordinarily intertwined. We are the largest investors in each other’s economies,” Blinken said.
Japanese firms invested almost US$800 billion in the US in 2023.
Blinken made no mention of Biden’s decision last week to block Nippon Steel’s US$14.9 billion takeover of long-struggling US Steel.
The two companies filed a lawsuit on Monday against the Biden administration’s “illegal interference” in the transaction.
“We’re certain the lawsuit will reveal a set of facts that clearly violate the constitution and the law, so I believe we have a chance of winning,” Nippon Steel CEO and chairman Eiji Hashimoto said yesterday.
