LIMA: US President Joe Biden met with Japanese and South Korean leaders on Friday (Nov 15) as they sought to cement their diplomatic progress forward of a brand new Trump administration that many concern might upend alliances worldwide.
The assembly between Washington and two of its closest Asian allies got here as US relations with Beijing are anticipated to develop extra confrontational after Donald Trump’s Jan 20 inauguration, given his guarantees of sharp tariff hikes that would hobble China’s economic system.
North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia to assist Russia’s battle in Ukraine, in addition to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and dimming prospects for a peaceable decision to a decades-long battle with South Korea are additionally elevating tensions in Asia.
“Japan, the ROK, and america strongly condemn the selections by the leaders of the DPRK and Russia to dangerously increase Russia’s battle of aggression in Ukraine,” mentioned a joint assertion, referring to South Korea and North Korea by their official names, the Republic of Korea and the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea.
The assembly on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Financial Cooperation (APEC) Summit in Lima, Peru, introduced Biden, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who assumed workplace in October, collectively in individual for the primary time.
After the assembly, the three nations introduced the creation of a Trilateral Secretariat designed to formalise the connection and ensure it was not simply “a sequence of conferences”, nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan instructed reporters travelling with Biden aboard Air Power One on Thursday.
