“Omicron is ripping through both the United States and Japan, and has delayed the first in-person meeting between Japan’s new prime minister, Kishida Fumio, and U.S. President Joe Biden. As a stopgap measure, the two leaders will meet for a “virtual summit” on January 21. They would be wise to use this to prepare the ground to launch a formal U.S.-Japan Pandemic Partnership to help bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.”

In this opinion piece, published in the Diplomat on the eve of the first summit of President Joseph Biden and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, JCIE Senior Fellow James Gannon calls on the two leaders to demonstrate they’re serious about harnessing the potential of the US-Japan alliance by pursuing greater collaboration on the global COVID-19 response.

Continue reading in The Diplomat.