Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
White House turns focus on Asian allies
Officials to arrive in Japan, S. Korea
WASHINGTON — Threats from China and North Korea will loom large over the Biden administration’s first Cabinet-level trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster U.S. influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.
A senior administration official said Saturday that U.S. officials have tried to reach out to North Korea through multiple channels since last month, but have yet to receive a response. That makes consultations with the reclusive country’s neighbors — Japan, South Korea and China — all the more critical.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting today as the new administration tries to shore up partnerships with the two key regional allies. Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet with Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.
The trip is intended to restore what Biden hopes will be a calming and even-keeled approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under former President Donald Trump. He had upended diplomatic norms by meeting three times with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Blinken and Austin also plan virtual meetings with journalists, civil-society members and others. After reassuring their counterparts of U.S. commitments to Japanese and South Korean security, they plan to focus on an increasingly assertive China, the nuclear challenge from North Korea and the coronavirus pandemic.
In his first months in office, Biden has signaled his desire to return the Asia-Pacific to the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda. In keeping with his broader “America is back” diplomatic theme, Biden has pledged to keep stability in the region at the core of his international initiatives.
On Friday, Biden participated 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 achieve stability.”
As part of that effort and “to reduce the risks of escalation,” the senior official said efforts had been made to connect with the North Koreans since mid-February, including through what is known as the “New York channel.” To date, the official said, “we have not received any response from Pyongyang.” The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the diplomatic outreach and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, U.S. and South Korean negotiators have overcome years of contentious discussions under Trump to reach a tentative deal on paying for
The trip is intended to restore what Biden hopes will be a calming and even-keeled approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under former President Donald Trump. He had upended diplomatic norms by meeting three times with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
the American troop presence in South Korea. That agreement, along with a similar one for Japan, will be front and center in Blinken and Austin’s meetings.
As he had done with allies in Europe, Trump threatened to reduce security cooperation unless host countries paid more. That led to fears of troop withdrawals at a time of particular uncertainty as China boosts efforts to dominate the region and North Korea’s nuclear weapons remain a major source of angst.
“Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy, and we are working to strengthen America’s relationships with our allies as well as the relationships among them,” said Sung Kim, who is the top U.S. diplomat for Asia. He served in the Philippines and Indonesia during the Trump administration and was also previously the special envoy for North Korea.
For all of Biden’s suggestions that he will reverse Trump’s overt hostility to China, Biden has yet to countermand a single one of his predecessor’s policies. He has, in fact, reaffirmed several of them, including maintaining sanctions in response to human-rights abuses in western Xinjiang and Hong Kong and restating a Trump-era decision to reject outright nearly all of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea.