U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to strengthen cooperation to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific despite “growing challenges” like “provocations by North Korea,” meeting for a bilateral summit in Washington.

“We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions,” the two sides said in a joint statement released by the White House following their meeting on Friday.

“President Biden reaffirms the U.S. commitment to the immediate resolution of the abductions issue,” the statement added, referring to North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationalsin