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CAMP DAVID, Md.—The U.S., Japan and South Korea took a significant step on Friday toward creating a bulwark against common threats from China and North Korea, forging a sturdier three-way alliance to bolster security.
President Biden hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David, in the first visit by foreign leaders to the presidential retreat since 2015. The three committed to consulting on threats to each’s security, working together on ballistic-missile defense, conducting annual joint military exercises and holding yearly summits to maintain the momentum.
The stronger alliance forms part of a lattice of partnerships that the U.S. has struck from India to Australia and Southeast Asia and that the Biden administration hopes will alter the strategic landscape against China. Beijing has been flexing its expanding power against neighboring states, while North Korea has ramped up its missile program in recent years and rejected diplomatic outreach.
“This is a new era of partnership,” Biden said at a press conference on Camp David’s wooded grounds, standing alongside the South Korean and Japanese leaders. Biden added later: “This is not about a day, week or month. This is about decades and decades of relationships that we’re building.”
U.S. officials described the summit as historic, given that previous attempts to nudge Tokyo and Seoul to cooperate have been undermined by lingering animosity over Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea, which ended after World War II. Biden praised Yoon and Kishida for showing “political courage” in mending ties—a move that officials said came despite negative public opinion in the leaders’ respective countries and provided an opening for Washington to boost cooperation.
Publicly, Biden administration officials said the new cooperation isn’t aimed at China but is intended to bolster an alliance important to the three countries’ security. Behind the scenes, they cited Beijing’s heightened actions in the seasfrom Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines as helping to shift attitudes in Seoul and Tokyo.
“It gives a strong message and impression that the U.S. has very capable friends,” said Rob Rapson, a retired U.S. diplomat, who served multiple tours in South Korea and Japan.
www.wsj.com
President Biden hosted South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David, in the first visit by foreign leaders to the presidential retreat since 2015. The three committed to consulting on threats to each’s security, working together on ballistic-missile defense, conducting annual joint military exercises and holding yearly summits to maintain the momentum.
The stronger alliance forms part of a lattice of partnerships that the U.S. has struck from India to Australia and Southeast Asia and that the Biden administration hopes will alter the strategic landscape against China. Beijing has been flexing its expanding power against neighboring states, while North Korea has ramped up its missile program in recent years and rejected diplomatic outreach.
“This is a new era of partnership,” Biden said at a press conference on Camp David’s wooded grounds, standing alongside the South Korean and Japanese leaders. Biden added later: “This is not about a day, week or month. This is about decades and decades of relationships that we’re building.”
U.S. officials described the summit as historic, given that previous attempts to nudge Tokyo and Seoul to cooperate have been undermined by lingering animosity over Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea, which ended after World War II. Biden praised Yoon and Kishida for showing “political courage” in mending ties—a move that officials said came despite negative public opinion in the leaders’ respective countries and provided an opening for Washington to boost cooperation.
Publicly, Biden administration officials said the new cooperation isn’t aimed at China but is intended to bolster an alliance important to the three countries’ security. Behind the scenes, they cited Beijing’s heightened actions in the seasfrom Japan to Taiwan and the Philippines as helping to shift attitudes in Seoul and Tokyo.
“It gives a strong message and impression that the U.S. has very capable friends,” said Rob Rapson, a retired U.S. diplomat, who served multiple tours in South Korea and Japan.
U.S., Japan and South Korea Boost Alliance to Counter China, North Korea
The closer alliance is part of a lattice of partnerships the Biden administration sees as altering the strategic landscape against Beijing.
www.wsj.com
