US President Joe Biden on Aug. 18 met with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David, where they unveiled a trio of documents aimed at bringing their countries closer together amid mounting tensions with China and North Korea.
The leaders agreed to expand security and economic ties and said that peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is “indispensable” to the security and prosperity of the international community, which echoes and reaffirms their joint statement issued at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia in November last year.
The Camp David summit was not only aimed at promoting trilateral engagement, but also at forming stronger and deeper ties among the nations. The institutionalization of “trilateralism” would bring about a collective security commitment among the US, Japan and South Korea. By establishing a “mini-NATO-style” security alliance, the nations could bolster a rules-based Indo-Pacific security order and counter China’s military aggression and economic coercion, as well as North Korea’s growing nuclear weapons program.
The historic summit is a new milestone in US-Japan-South Korea relations and a huge advancement in the US’ security deployment in Northeast Asia.
Experienced in diplomatic affairs, Biden spared no effort in bringing the summit together. The choice of Camp David, which occupies a special place in US diplomacy, is rich in symbolism. Nestled in an isolated, hilly forest in the woods of Maryland, the rustic presidential retreat has been used by US presidents to escape the pressure cooker of Washington and to meet foreign guests and leaders in a more relaxed atmosphere. It is a significant setting, where leaders have set aside their differences for peace deals to come together.
In 1978, then-US president Jimmy Carter invited then-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and then-Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to the camp to broker a peace deal after decades of violence and war. Former US president Bill Clinton brought former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the retreat for two weeks of talks in 2000.
This month’s summit marked the first stand-alone gathering of the US, South Korea and Japan, and was the first time Biden had hosted foreign leaders at the symbolic negotiation site since taking office. The Biden administration sought the meeting amid rising security concerns in the Indo-Pacific region and East Asia. As China and North Korea ratchet up their military threats, the risk of war increases. As a result, Biden, Yoon and Kishida issued a series of declarations and agreements meant to institutionalize their partnership across all aspects of their relationship, such as security, trade, technology, education and regional cooperation.
Nevertheless, the fraught relations between Japan and South Korea — from land disputes to historical grievances stemming from World War II and the Japanese colonial rule of South Korea — have always hindered close cooperation, resulting in a chink in the armor of East Asian security.
Political sentiment and public antipathy have been hurdles in forming an alliance between the countries. Meanwhile, China is constantly using Japanese atrocities committed during WWII to add fuel to the fire of anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea, diminishing any hopes of rapprochement.
Nevertheless, China’s and North Korea’s belligerence have brought a silver lining. For example, in 2017, the US deployed in South Korea the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system to protect against North Korean threats in 2017. Beijing responded with economic retaliation, prohibiting Chinese tour groups to South Korea, suspending businesses, restricting imports and canceling K-pop concerts. The restrictive measures have drawn the ire of South Koreans, leading to a larger chill in bilateral relations.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the autocratic rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), crackdowns on Hong Kongers and the yearly sandstorms and air pollution over Beijing have slowly been tipping the scale. Anti-China sentiment has grown so much that China has replaced Japan as the country regarded most unfavorably in South Korea.
A Pew Research Center study showed that South Koreans and Japanese have the world’s most negative view of China. Another survey showed that 91 percent of South Koreans younger than 39 have unfavorable views of China, while more than 88 percent have unfavorable views of North Korea.
With a mutual wariness of China, Russia and North Korea, Kishida’s and Yoon’s sustained efforts to bury the hatchet have become the key to the breakthrough in US-South Korea-Japan relations.
In March, Japan and South Korea renewed ties in the first bilateral summit in 12 years, while consecutive visits marked the full revival of “shuttle diplomacy,” adding momentum to their cooperation in navigating and addressing delicate and nettlesome issues, such as compensation for forced labor during the Japanese colonial period and the releasing of treated wastewater from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.
The two leaders, as Biden commended at Camp David, have demonstrated great political courage in resolving difficult issues that have stood in their way for a long time.
On the other hand, Beijing is offended by the development. “No matter how blonde you dye your hair, how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner,” Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Wang Yi (王毅) said. “We must know where our roots lie.”
To bolster the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral relationship and build a new construct in the Indo-Pacific region, the Camp David summit has facilitated critical arrangements. In terms of forging closer ties on economy and security, the leaders have announced the creation of a three-way hotline for crisis consulting, new intelligence-sharing pacts and a plan to hold annual military exercises, such as ballistic missile drills. The joint efforts would also be realized in artificial intelligence and Internet development, supply chains and their economies.
As the US, Japan and South Korea are democratic countries, the leaders, as dictated in the trio of documents, have pledged that their nations would continue to meet annually with the hope that a deeper trilateral relationship would endure political leadership changes or domestic shifts in attitude.
What was remarkable is that the leaders’ language on China was stronger than expected by referencing it by name in a joint condemnation. They referred to China’s presence in the South China Sea as “dangerous and aggressive behavior,” including its maritime disputes, large-scale land reclamation for militarization, and the aggression of marine police and soldiers. China’s growing military presence in regional waters has unnerved Pacific island countries and Southeast Asian nations, triggering growing concerns.
As the goal and purpose of the Camp David summit is closely tied to cross-strait security, Taiwan is glad to see its closest ally and neighbors making efforts to pursue greater unity and take coordinated action for regional stability.
Translated by Rita Wang
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