U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga hold a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden (April 16, 2021)
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has canceled plans to visit India and the Philippines during the “Golden Week” holiday that begins in late April, a government spokeswoman said Wednesday (April 21), amid a sharp rise in cases of the new coronavirus.
The Japanese government is considering declaring a state of emergency in Tokyo and several other prefectures. Meanwhile, data from India on Wednesday showed that 295,041 new cases of infection and 2,023 deaths were reported overnight in the country. It was the highest number of infections and deaths in a single day in the Indian outbreak.
Asked about media reports that Kan’s visits to India and the Philippines had been canceled, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said, “In order to take all possible measures to fight the epidemic, it has been decided that Prime Minister Kan will not make any overseas visits during Golden Week.”
Japan and India are members of the Quartet, as are the United States and Australia.
Faced with challenges from the Chinese Communist Party, Quartet leaders pledged last month to work to ensure freedom and openness in the Indo-Pacific region and to cooperate on maritime, cyber and economic security, issues of vital importance to the four democracies.
Kan’s trip to India would have enabled him to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Kan has already held face-to-face meetings with the other two leaders of the Quartet – U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister John Morrison.
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