Biden meets with South Korean, Japanese leaders in pre-Trump meeting at risk via Reuters
By Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt
LIMA (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden met with the leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday as they sought to cement their diplomatic progress ahead of a new Trump administration that many fear could strain global alliances.
The meeting between Washington and two of its closest Asian allies comes as US-Beijing relations are expected to deepen after the inauguration of Donald Trump on January 20, given his promises of tariff hikes that could hurt China’s economy.
North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, as well as North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and dim prospects for a peaceful resolution to the decades-long conflict with South Korea are also raising tensions in Asia.
The meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Lima, Peru, brings Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who took office in October, together for the first time.
They announced the creation of a “secretariat” for the three countries to formalize the relationship and make sure it’s “not a series of meetings,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters accompanying Biden aboard Air Force One on Thursday.
Getting South Korea and Japan to work together is considered one of the major achievements of Biden’s four years as president. The two countries have a long history of conflict dating back to the colonial rule of Korea in 1910-1945.
Biden sees the close relationship between the three as a bulwark against China’s aggressive moves in the region, a view Beijing rejects. Yoon met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, while Ishiba and Biden were to hold their own face-to-face with Xi during the APEC summit.
“I truly believe that our countries’ cooperation will be the foundation of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific for many years to come,” Biden said at the start of the trilateral meeting.
Trump’s commitment to trilateral work has been an open question in the region given the president-elect’s “America First” approach, allegations of US financial and military support for traditional allies and his political involvement in North Korea during his first four-year term. .
“The transitions have historically been times when the DPRK has taken provocative actions, before and after the transition from one president to a new president,” Sullivan said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “I don’t think we can count on a period of peace with the DPRK.”
