Photo : Collected
U.S. President Joe Biden and the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed to extend military ties and made their strongest joint condemnation yet of dangerous and aggressive behavior by China in the South China Sea, on Friday (18 August) at Camp David summit.
The Biden administration held the summit with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, in a bid to project unity in the face of China's growing power and nuclear threats from North Korea.
In this summit, the three countries committed to consult promptly with each other during crises and to coordinate responses to regional challenges, provocations, and threats affecting common interests. They also agreed to hold military training exercises annually and to share real-time information on North Korean missile launches by the end of 2023. The countries promised to hold trilateral summits annually.
The summit at the Maryland presidential retreat was the first standalone meeting between the U.S. and Japan and South Korea and came about thanks to a rapprochement launched by Yoon, and driven by shared perceptions of threats posed by China and North Korea, as well as Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
This summit was Joe Biden's first Camp David summit for foreign leaders and he said the woodsy venue had long symbolized the power of new beginnings and new possibilities. In a joint news conference, Biden said, If I seem like I'm happy, I am calling it a new era for the three countries. This has been a great, great meeting. Together we're going to stand up for international law, and against coercion.
The leaders’ language on China stood out as stronger than expected and is likely to provoke a response from Beijing, which is a vital trading partner for both South Korea and Japan.
The summit statement said, Regarding the dangerous and aggressive behavior supporting unlawful maritime claims that 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 the waters of the Indo-Pacific.
Liu Pengyu, the spokesperson for China's Washington embassy, said the international community was able to judge who was increasing tensions. Attempts to cobble together various exclusionary groupings and bring bloc confrontation and military blocs into the Asia-Pacific are not going to get support and will only be met with vigilance and opposition from regional countries.
TDM/AH
