US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met for talks in the deeply symbolic city of Hiroshima on Thursday (May 18), aiming for closer cooperation in the face of an ascendant China and an unpredictable Russia they see as threatening the post-war order.

The two met ahead of a three-day Group of Seven (G7) summit that starts on Friday in Hiroshima, the first city to be levelled by an atomic bomb.

Members of the G7, which also includes Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada, are increasingly concerned by what they see as China’s economically coercive policies and its rapid accumulation of sensitive technology – as well as Russia’s repeated threats over use of nuclear arms.