WASHINGTON (AP) – A new deal with South Korea sharing the cost of keeping U.S. troops on the Korean Peninsula is early evidence that President Joe Biden is shifting America’s approach to alliances in Asia and beyond. It shows he will cut allies a breather to build unity in the competition against China and Russia.
President Donald Trump has demanded that South Korea pay billions more to keep US troops on its soil. According to him, the United States is fleeing by what he suggested freeloaders impersonate. Initially, Trump insisted that the South Korean government pay five times as much as it had previously done. Seoul was deterred, diplomacy went nowhere, and relations with a treaty began to weaken.
By contrast, Biden focused on a 13.9% boost and follow-up increases that brought the issue to rest.
Biden is of the opinion that well-functioning alliances play a key role in the competition with China, which considers its government along with Russia to be America’s biggest long-term security challenge. Biden’s promise to focus more on Asia reflects the commitments of the two previous administrations – both of which’s plans were stimulated by persistent unrest in the Middle East. In a sign that Biden could face similar obstacles, his first known military attack was on extremist targets in Syria.
In what the White House calls a sign of Biden’s commitment to partnership in the Asia-Pacific region, he will meet virtually on Friday with the leaders of three other local power stations – India, Australia and Japan. Biden will also send Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea next week for security consultations; on his way home, Blinken will join Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, for talks with Chinese officials in Alaska.
A few days before the election last November, candidate Biden predicted his intentions towards Seoul in an opinion piece he wrote for the news agency Yonhap in South Korea. He praised the role of the South Koreans in an alliance with blood forged, and he promised a new approach to Seoul if he were to win.
“Words matter – and the words of a president matter even more,” Biden wrote. “As president, I will stand with South Korea and strengthen our alliance to protect peace in East Asia and beyond, rather than blackmailing Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops.” He promises ‘principled diplomacy’.
He might as well have mentioned rapid diplomacy. Last weekend, US and South Korean negotiators reached an agreement that, if ratified by the South Korean National Assembly, would end a stalemate over Seoul’s share in the cost of bringing about 28,500 US troops to the Korean Peninsula. keep. The troops serve as a symbol of the US commitment to a defense treaty born out of the Korean War from 1950 to 53.
The new cost-sharing agreement comes after a one-time arrangement by the Trump administration in March 2019, which required Seoul to pay about $ 1 trillion in Korean won, the equivalent of $ 910 million. Trump then demanded a fivefold increase from 2020. The South Korean government refused.
Biden took office in January with what he apparently saw as a chance to end the disaster, and the State Department of Negotiators quickly reached a multi-year deal that saw a 13.9 percent increase in Seoul this year. demands payments, followed by four-year increases in its defense budget.
“This government is trying to say alliances are important to us,” said Bruce Bennett, an Asia specialist at the RAND Corp., adding that it goes beyond South Korea and other traditional Asian allies such as Japan. Biden officials “know they have a big problem dealing with the Chinese threat. Making their relationship with allies closer is an important part of the strategy to do so. ”
Japan and South Korea have been at the heart of the U.S. defense strategy in the broader Asia-Pacific region for decades, leading the top U.S. commander there, adm. Philip Davidson, “the most important region for the future of America.” Last month, the US and Japan agreed on a one-year extension of their cost-sharing agreement for the U.S. Troop Representation; the foreign ministry said it gives more time to negotiate a longer agreement.
Part of the background for the swift agreement with Seoul is Biden’s focus on China’s military modernization, its ambitions to be a world power, and its potential to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
“There is a general opinion in the Biden government that the US should treat China from a strong position, strengthen our alliances and renew our own country,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, director of China Power Project, said. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump was hardly the first president to pressure allies to pay more of the cost of hosting US forces. The difference was that Trump faced inflexibility – some would be offensive – towards European and Asian allies who were at odds with his Pentagon leaders, starting with Jim Mattis, who placed a high value on alliance cooperation. This difference was a major reason why Mattis resigned in December 2018.
In addition to trying to squeeze more money out of Seoul, Trump questioned the need for U.S. military exercises with South Korea, calling them wasteful and an insult to North Korea.
Jonathan D. Pollack, an East Asia policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said it was no surprise that Biden would move quickly to make a cost-sharing agreement with Seoul and ease the tensions of the Trump administration.
“If the government is seriously, as I think, trying to restore some normality in alliance relations, that’s a very good way to do it,” Pollack said. He believes this is also true in Europe, where US relations with NATO allies have been strained by Trump demands for burden-sharing.
“I think this is an indication of the way I expect Biden to act in other areas as well in terms of improving the alliance,” he said.