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South Korea and Japan, the anchor of US strategy in Northeast Asia, are also engaged in the policy of sanctioning and isolating Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. But the political and military support provided by Washington to kyiv had raised fears in Seoul and Tokyo of a refocusing of American strategy on Europe, to the detriment of the Indo-Pacific.
Visiting South Korea and Japan, President Joe Biden has just tried to reassure his allies, faced with a China perceived in Tokyo as a threat and a North Korea returned to a strategy of tension. “For decades, our alliance has been a pillar of regional peace, growth and prosperity. Today, our cooperation is essential to preserve the stability of the world stage as well,” declared, Saturday, May 21, in Seoul, Mr. Biden, who had started his tour by the South Korean capital at the end of the week.
Alignment with the United States was expected from South Korea, where the new president, Yoon Seok-youl, intends to give a ” new start “ to his country by tying it more firmly to the new economic and security architecture of the Indo-Pacific and by making it play a greater role at the global level.
Mr. Yoon announced that he intended to depart from the conciliatory policy vis-à-vis the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of his predecessor, Moon Jae-in, who relied on moderation to convince Pyongyang to engage in negotiations. The South Korean president thus announced that the joint American-South Korean military maneuvers would be intensified and that the Strategy and Deterrence Council, a high-level mechanism intended to broaden the framework for deterrence actions, put on hold since January 2018, would be reactivated.
Increase in Japan’s defense budget
The American president for his part declared himself open to dialogue with Pyongyang, which has repeatedly made it known that the talks are futile as long as the United States maintains its “hostile politics” (i.e. penalties). A seventh North Korean nuclear test, announced as imminent by Washington, however, did not take place during Joe Biden’s visit to Seoul. It could only be postponed.
The unfailing alignment with the United States was more unexpected in the case of Japan, which generally plays the more weighted card when it comes to international relations. Expressing fear that “what happens in Ukraine can happen tomorrow in East Asia”, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, backed by 61.5% of the population because of his firmness on the war in Ukraine, called, after his talks with the American president, Japan’s allies “and countries that share the same values to cooperate to never tolerate the use of force in the Indo-Pacific region”. “We strongly oppose any attempt to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Sea,” he added
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