Japan PM Suga wishes Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, looks forward to strengthening alliance

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga congratulated the United States President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris following their victory in the recently concluded US elections. Suga said that he looks forward to working with the new US President on further strengthening the Japan-US ties and in ensuring "peace, freedom, and prosperity" in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

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Japan and the United States share close strategic and diplomatic ties since the end of World War II. Currently, there are around 55,000 American soldiers deployed in Japan as part of a post-war security treaty signed between both countries. Suga and Biden are expected to discuss the Host Nation Support agreement that requires Japan to share the cost of hosting American troops. The Trump administration was pressuring Tokyo into paying more than what they were already contributing, which had become a major bilateral issue. 

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US election 2020

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were projected winners of the presidential poll on Saturday, November 7 by several major US media outlets after the Democratic party candidate secured a major lead against incumbent Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, which offers 20 electoral votes. Before Pennsylvania was called, Biden was lagging behind by just 6 votes to reach the magic 270 mark, which is required for a candidate to become the president of the United States. 

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Meanwhile, sitting President Donald Trump has refused to concede defeat and is insisting election fraud as the reason behind Biden's victory. The Trump campaign and the Republican National Convention (RNC) have filed lawsuits in several states, challenging the counting of late-arriving votes. The Trump campaign has accused poll officials of illegally counting ballots that arrived after 8 p.m. on the final voting day. 

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