USA keep pivoting towards Asia. The American President, Joe Bidenhas sealed this Friday a new trilateral alliance with Japan and South Korea that will serve to guarantee their mutual security, improve their coordination in strategic areas such as the military and try to contain the advance of China.
In a three-way summit that they have defined as “historic”, Biden, the Prime Minister of Japan, Fumio Kishidaand the president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, have agreed a “consultation commitment” according to which the three countries should consider any threat or attack against one of them as their own and agree on a joint response. That commitment would not oblige them to take action in the face of aggression, as established in Article 5 of the Treaty of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but strengthens defense cooperation.
the triumvirate has agreed to expand the tripartite military maneuvers that they carry out every year, share intelligence to reinforce their cyber defense and against the ballistic missiles and develop a framework for assistance in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. In addition, the leaders have pledged to hold annual meetings “forever” — an institutional arrangement similar to the one the US has with Canada and Mexico — and a trilateral hotline will be launched so they can communicate securely in the event of a crisis. “If I seem happy, it’s because I am,” Biden celebrated at a press conference after the meeting. “The world is at a tipping point and our nations have decided to stand together.”
The agreement does not include a joint framework on the potential use of nuclear weapons. In April, Biden and Yoon strengthened strategic ties and agreed to greater coordination in the face of a possible military response to threats from North Korea. However, Japan – the only country in the world victim of this weaponry – has refused to participate.
Beyond the military, the battery of initiatives signed today will also accelerate trilateral cooperation in other strategic areas such as the technologythe science wave education. Thus, they will create a system to detect possible problems in the supply chain focused on the materials needed to build semiconductors, a vital component for consumer computing, but also for automotive or military technology. South Korea, Japan and the US are the main manufacturers of advanced chips of the world behind taiwan. In recent months, both the US and Japan have promoted blockade measures so that China cannot access this key strategic element for its economy.
Tour between Tokyo and Seoul
Although Washington is an old ally of tokyo and seoul Separately, relations between the two Asian countries have historically been problematic, a tension that stems from the brutal occupation and repression to which the Japanese empire subjected the Korean people for almost 35 years. That animosity has hurt US attempts to unite neighbors China and North Korea under a single goal.
Welcome to Camp David, President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida. pic.twitter.com/tZ3IsNIQhP
—President Biden (@POTUS) August 18, 2023
However, that has started to change under Yoon Suk Yeol’s presidency. Although up to 64% of South Koreans demand more changes in Japan’s attitude to close their reconciliation, according to a Gallup poll, the president has chosen to reach out to his old enemy. After being elected last year, the South Korean leader has managed to get both countries to lift the trade restrictions they had imposed. That turn has opened the door to a historic agreement. That is why the new alliance has been staged in Camp Davidthe Maryland presidential retreat, which until now had never opened its doors to foreign leaders.
geopolitical impact
The new trilateral alliance has outraged beijing, which sees in it the umpteenth US operation to frustrate the growth of the Asian giant, the largest economic power in the region. “The next summit between the leaders of the three countries intends to form a ‘mini NATO’ structure that will be destructive for regional security, making the situation more complex with more conflicts,” wrote ‘The Global Times’, controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
The main strategic axis of Biden’s foreign policy has been to forge alliances with Indo-Pacific countries to try to weaken their common rival. Even so, the US administration denies that it is trying to build a NATO-like military alliance.
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Experts agree that this diplomatic milestone responds, in part, to the destabilization geopolitics triggered by the war in Ukraine, which has relaunched interest in security. US-allied Asian nations such as Japan and South Korea fear that China may in the future act as Russia and militarily invade a neighbor, with taiwan In the spotlight. Last year, Beijing and Moscow they held joint military exercises in the Sea of Japan shortly after the new alliance tested missiles. Although China’s expansion is mainly focused on its commercial power, that fear of conflict is behind the agreement signed today with Washington.
“The ultimate long-term goal should be to directly connect the Japanese and South Korean missile defense systems rather than use the US as a go-between,” say Max Boot, an analyst at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Sue Mi Kerry, a former analyst at the CIA, to ‘The Washington Post‘.