US President Joe Biden and the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed to deepen military and economic ties between their countries during their Camp David retreat on Friday, and expressed their strongest condemnation of “dangerous behavior and aggressive” of China in the South China Sea.
Biden administration held summit with leaders of key US allies in Asia, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in an effort to project unity in the face of China’s rise and nuclear threats of North Korea.
According to the joint summit statement, the three countries pledged to consult each other early during crises and coordinate responses to regional challenges, provocations and threats affecting their common interests.
They also agreed to hold annual trilateral military exercises and share real-time information on North Korean missile launches by the end of 2023. The countries pledged to hold annual trilateral summits.
But it was the language on China that stood out, coming out stronger than expected and likely to provoke a response from Beijing, a vital trading partner for both Korea and Japan.
“Regarding the dangerous and aggressive behavior in support of illegal maritime claims we have recently witnessed by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the South China Sea, we strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in Indian waters.” peaceful,” the statement said.
Biden’s first Camp David summit pledges for foreign leaders represent a significant move for Seoul and Tokyo, which have a long history of mutual disagreements and mistrust. Biden said Camp David was a place that had long symbolized “the power of new beginnings and new possibilities.”
“If I look happy, it’s because I am,” he told a press conference, calling it a “new era” for the three countries. “It was a great, great meeting.”
Standing next to Kishida and Yoon, in suits without ties, Biden praised the leaders for their political courage in seeking reconciliation and said he understood the world was “at a critical juncture, where we are called to lead in ways new, to work together, to be together”.
This is “just a summit,” Biden said, but added that the meeting was creating institutional changes to make the relationship between the three countries stronger, permanently.
“Together, we will uphold international law” and oppose “coercion,” Biden said.
Without mentioning China by name, Kishida said that “unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas continue,” adding that North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat “was getting bigger and bigger.” “.
With encouragement from Washington, Tokyo and Seoul are grappling with disputes dating back to the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula in 1910-1945.
US officials say such disputes are among the reasons the three countries are not currently pursuing a trilateral mutual defense pact along the lines of one the US has separately with South Korea and Japan, which themselves are not they are formal allies.
Source: Terra
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