WASHINGTON (AP) – A new agreement with South Korea sharing the cost of keeping US troops in the Korean Peninsula is early evidence that President Joe Biden is shifting the US approach to alliances in Asia and beyond. It shows that he will cut a pause for allies to build unity in competition with China and Russia.
President Donald Trump had demanded South Korea pay billions more to keep US troops in its territory. According to him, the United States was buried under what he presented as freeloaders posing as allies. Initially, Trump insisted that the South Korean government pay five times as much as before. Seoul refused, diplomacy went nowhere, and relations with an ally in the treaty began to squabble.
Biden, on the other hand, settled for a 13.9% boost and subsequent raises that calmed the problem.
Biden believes that functioning alliances are central to competition with China, which his government sees as America’s greatest long-term security challenge, along with Russia. Biden’s pledge to focus more on Asia echoes the commitments made by the two previous governments – their plans for both being hampered by ongoing unrest in the Middle East. As a sign that Biden could face similar obstacles, his first known military strike was against extremist targets in Syria.
In what the White House called a sign of Biden’s commitment to working together in the Asia-Pacific region, he will virtually meet with the leaders of three other regional superpowers on Friday: India, Australia and Japan. Biden will also send Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea for security talks next week; On his way home, Blinken will join Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, for talks with Chinese officials in Alaska.
A few days before last November’s election, candidate Biden announced his intentions for Seoul in an opinion article he wrote for South Korean news agency Yonhap. He praised the South Koreans’ role in a ‘blood-forged’ alliance and firmly promised a new approach to Seoul if he won.
“Words are important – and the words of a president are even more important,” Biden wrote. “As president, I stand with South Korea and strengthen our alliance to ensure peace in East Asia and beyond, instead of extorting Seoul with reckless threats to remove our troops.” He promised “diplomacy of principle”.
Perhaps he was also talking about quick diplomacy. Last weekend, the US and South Korean negotiators reached an agreement that, if ratified by the South Korean National Assembly, would end a deadlock over Seoul’s share of the cost of keeping some 28,500 US troops on the Korean peninsula. The troops serve as a symbol of the US’s commitment to a defense treaty born out of the Korean War of 1950-53.
The new cost-sharing deal comes after a one-year stop-gap by the Trump administration in March 2019, requiring Seoul to pay about 1 trillion Korean won, the estimated equivalent of $ 910 million. Trump then demanded a fivefold increase from 2020. The South Korean government refused.
Biden took office in January with what he apparently saw as an opportunity to end the bitterness, and the State Department’s team of negotiators quickly negotiated a multi-year deal that saw an increase of 13.9 this year. percent of payments in Seoul were required, followed by four years of increases. increases in its defense budget.
“This administration is trying to say that alliances are important to us,” said Bruce Bennett, an Asia specialist at RAND Corp., adding that this goes beyond South Korea and includes other traditional Asian allies such as Japan. Biden officials “know they have a substantial problem facing the Chinese threat. Thus, tightening their relationship with allies is an important part of the strategy for doing that. “
For decades, Japan and South Korea have been at the heart of US defense strategy in the wider Asia-Pacific region, which the US top commander there, Admiral Philip Davidson, has called “ the region with the greatest impact on America’s future. ” Last month, the US and Japan agreed on a one-year extension of their cost-sharing agreement for the presence of US troops; the State Department said this gave more time to negotiate a longer deal.
Part of the backdrop to the swift deal with Seoul is Biden’s focus on China’s military modernization, his ambitions to be a global power, and his potential to stem North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
“There is a widespread view within the Biden administration that the US should tackle China from a strong position, which requires both strengthening our alliances and renewing our own country,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, director of the China Power Project. at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump was by no means the first president to push allies to pay more for receiving US troops. The difference was that Trump took an unyielding – some would say insulting – approach to European and Asian allies that was at odds with his Pentagon leaders, starting with Jim Mattis, who cared about alliance cooperation. This difference was a major reason why Mattis stepped down in December 2018.
Trump not only tried to squeeze more money out of Seoul, but had also questioned the need for US military exercises with South Korea, calling them a waste and an insult to North Korea.
Jonathan D. Pollack, an East Asia policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said it’s no surprise that Biden would act quickly to secure a cost-sharing deal with Seoul and ease tensions on the Trump administration.
“If the government is serious, as I think they are, to restore some degree of normalcy in alliance relationships, then this is a very good way to do that,” Pollack said. He thinks this is also true in Europe, where relations between the US and NATO allies have been strained by Trump’s demands on defense burden sharing.
“I think it is indicative of how I expect Biden to continue on other fronts in terms of strengthening the alliance,” he said.