WASHINGTON (AP) – Threats from China and North Korea will spark big fears over the Biden government’s first trip abroad to the cabinet, which is part of a larger effort to influence US influence and concern over America’s role in Asia to strengthen.
A senior administration official said on Saturday that U.S. officials had been trying to reach out to North Korea through various channels since last month, but had not yet received a response. This makes consultations with the country’s neighbors, Japan, South Korea and China, even more critical.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are on their way to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting Monday, while the new government seeks partnerships with the two key allies. . Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
The trip is meant to restore what Biden hopes will be a calming and balanced approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under Donald Trump. He maintained diplomatic norms by meeting not once but three times with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Blinken and Austin are also planning virtual meetings with journalists, members of civil society and others. After reassuring their counterparts of US commitments to Japanese and South Korean security, they plan to focus on an increasingly assertive China, the North Korean nuclear challenge, and the coronavirus pandemic.
In his first months in office, Biden indicated his desire to return the Asia-Pacific to the top of US foreign policy agenda. In line with its broader diplomatic theme “America is back”, Biden has undertaken to keep stability in the region at the heart of its international initiatives.
On Friday, Biden took part in a virtual summit with the leaders of India, Japan and Australia. “A free and open Indo-Pacific is essential,” Biden said. “The United States is committed to working with you, our partners, and all of our allies in the region to bring about stability.”
As part of the effort and ‘to reduce the risks of escalation’, the senior official said that since mid-February, efforts had been made to contact the North Koreans, including through the ‘New York Channel’ . To date, the official said: “We have not received any response from Pyongyang.” The official was not authorized to discuss the diplomatic outreach in public and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, US and South Korean negotiators have overcome years of controversial talks under Trump to reach a preliminary agreement on the payment of US troops’ representation in South Korea. This agreement, along with a similar agreement for Japan, will be the front and center of the Blinken and Austin meetings.
As he did with allies in Europe, Trump threatened to reduce security cooperation unless host countries paid more. This has led to fears of withdrawals from the troops in a time of particular uncertainty, as China increases efforts to dominate the region, and North Korea’s nuclear weapons remain a major source of anxiety.
“Diplomacy is once again at the heart of our foreign policy, and we are working to strengthen America’s relations with our allies, as well as the relations between them,” said Sung Kim, who is the best American diplomat in Asia. He served during the Trump administration in the Philippines and Indonesia and was also previously the special envoy for North Korea.
Because of all Biden’s suggestions that he would stop Trump’s open hostility towards China, Biden should not yet oppose any of his predecessor’s policies. In fact, he reaffirmed several of them, including enforcing sanctions in response to human rights violations in western Xinjiang and Hong Kong and reiterating a Trump-era decision to curb almost all of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea. reject.
Many of China’s policies that the United States finds offensive – including its repression in Hong Kong, its rhetoric against Taiwan, and its actions in the South China Sea – began during the Obama administration. The previous Democratic government took office and promised a ‘pivot to Asia’ after a period of what many people saw as the American neglect of the region during George W. Bush’s presidency, which was consumed by the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although some obvious circumstances have changed since 2009, the journey of Blinken and Austin in many ways reflects the initial overseas trip of President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, when she traveled to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and thereafter China in an effort to re-promote American interests in the Asia-Pacific. However, Obama’s alliance with China has not yielded the desired results, and the North Korean threat has increased.
Although China is not on Blinken’s itinerary, after completing the stop in Seoul, he will fly back to Washington via Anchorage, Alaska, where he and Sullivan will meet senior Chinese officials. Austin will travel from Seoul to New Delhi for meetings with Indian leaders.
Nevertheless, the government is convinced that its domestic efforts to revive the US economy and intensify the fight against COVID-19 have put it in a better position to directly stump Chinese ambitions and leverage its partnerships to do the same. to do.
“After the work of the past 50 days, Secretary Blinken and I will enter the meeting with senior Chinese representatives from a strong position,” Sulllivan said Friday.