The United States and South Korea agreed to a new security pledge with Japan on Friday, said officials from US President Joe Biden’s administration, even as things remain volatile on the Asian side with North Korea’s increasing nuclear threats and China’s aggressiveness in the South China.

Under the “duty to consult” pledge, the three nations have agreed to “share fundamentally interlinked security environments” and consult each other in case a security crisis or threat emerges in the Pacific region, said Biden administration officials. 

The US President welcomed his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

A historic moment?

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan touted the summit as a ‘big deal’. “It is a historic event, and it sets the conditions for a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and a stronger and more secure United States of America,” he told reporters. He maintained that the summit was not targeting any other country.

On similar lines, Kishida on Thursday asserted that the summit will be a “historic occasion to bolster trilateral strategic cooperation” with the United States and South Korea, especially when the security environment surrounding Tokyo was becoming increasingly severe.

The summit was criticised by the Chinese government, with its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin commenting that the international community has its own judgement on “who is creating contradictions and increasing tensions”.

“Attempts to form various exclusive groups and cliques and to bring bloc confrontation into the Asia-Pacific region are unpopular and will definitely spark vigilance and opposition in the countries of the region,” Wang said.

Confrontations with North Korea and China

The summit is the latest attempt by the Biden administration to tighten security and economic cooperation with the Asian countries amid challenges from North Korea and China. Pyongyang has called for drastic increase in the production of missiles and other weapons for its war preparations in face of joint military drills held by the US and South Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said that the country must have “an overwhelming military force and get fully prepared for coping with any war” with the power to “surely annihilate” its enemies. Kim has been trying to beef up ties with China and Russia in the face of US-led pressure campaigns over its nuclear programme and pandemic-related economic difficulties.

US efforts to contain North Korea’s belligerent approach have been complicated by the detainment of US soldier Travis King, who crossed the border of South Korea last month. The US, South Korea and others have accused North Korea of using foreign detainees to wrest diplomatic concessions.

Meanwhile, China has also ramped up military incursions in the Taiwanese airspace in its larger plans to unify the self-governed island with the mainland. China has for long threatened to take control of Taiwan by force and slammed US for providing support to Taipei.

China has also created tensions with the Phillipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei over its bellicose in the disputed South China Sea. China claims ownership over virtually the entire strategic waterway despite international rulings that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims, such as that in 2016 by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international body based in The Hague.

Most recently, a Chinese vessel fired a water cannon to block Philippine boats delivering food and other supplies to the Filipino sailors on the ship in the Second Thomas Shoal, which Chinese coast guard ships and a swarm of Chinese fishing boats — suspected to be manned by militias — have surrounded for years.

(with agency inputs)

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