Biden on calls to repair relations

PARTNERS: COURTS AUSTRALIA, SOUTH KOREA, JAPAN

Confirms defence commitment to Japan’s new premier.

US president-elect Joe Biden rang round allies in Seoul, Sydney and Tokyo yesterday, vowing to repair frayed partnerships and reaffirming mutual defence pacts thrown in doubt by the current White House.

A day after Biden’s series of “America is back” calls with European leaders, he spoke to Australia’s Scott Morrison, South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and the recently installed Japanese leader Yoshihide Suga.

All three men had already congratulated Biden on his recent election victory over Donald Trump, despite the incumbent’s refusal to concede.

Biden’s call with Suga included a stark warning from the Japanese prime minister that the “security situation is increasingly severe” around the region, according to an account of the call from Japanese officials.

Suga’s unusually frank analysis was met with Biden expressing his “deep commitment to the defence of Japan” and to decades-old treaty obligations.

During the four-year Trump administration, US regional allies often questioned whether Trump would uphold long-standing promises to defend them in the event of a military conflagration.

In a move likely to cause protest in Beijing, Biden reportedly confirmed this defence commitment extended to the Senkakus, an uninhabited island chain claimed by both Japan and China which has been a potential flashpoint for decades. –