Readout on the President's Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Aso

President Obama today held in-depth consultations with the Prime Minister of Japan on the global economic crisis and other areas for bilateral cooperation. The President underscored his firm commitment to the U.S.-Japan Alliance and called for continued progress in modernizing the Alliance by implementing the joint realignment initiative.

The two leaders agreed to work closely and urgently, as the world's leading economies, to stimulate demand at home and abroad, to help other countries respond to the global crisis, to unfreeze credit markets, and to seek concrete results from the April London Economic Summit and through the G-8. They agreed fully on the need to resist protectionism.

With respect to regional issues, they pledged to work closely through the Six-Party process to verifiably eliminate North Korea's nuclear program and to deal with the problem of North Korea's missiles, as well as other matters including Japan's abducted citizens.

Noting the importance of stabilizing Afghanistan, President Obama expressed appreciation for Japan's extensive contributions to date and strongly welcomed Japan's intention to play a greater role in assisting Afghanistan as well as Pakistan to improve security and economic development.

The two leaders both saw climate change as a priority for both nations and discussed ways of working together, including in an effort to assist developing nations. They pledged to build on the strong record of joint research and development on clean energy technology.