China, North Korea made Austin head of Asia in a blink of an eye

The threats from China and North Korea will have a major impact on the Biden administration’s first cabinet-level visit abroad, part of a larger effort to influence US influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.

A senior administration said on Saturday that US officials have tried to reach North Korea through several channels since last month, but have not yet received a response, with the country’s neighbors, Japan, South Korea and China Counseling is all the more important.

Read this also. US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin visited India during his first foreign trip

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks beginning on Monday, as the administration intends to partner with two major regional treaty partners.

Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, would then meet with senior Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska. His first official overseas visits are intended to restore Biden’s hopes, a quiet and even to the relationship with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactions and often capricious ties under the previous president, Donald Trump. That would be the Kelt approach.

He met diplomatic norms by meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un not once, but three times.

Read this also. North Korea overtakes Biden administration

In addition to their official conversations, Blinken and Austin plan virtual meetings with journalists, civil-society members, and others. After reassuring their counterparts of American commitments to Japanese and South Korean security, they plan to focus their talks on cooperating with North Korea to counter the growing nuclear China, nuclear challenge and coronovirus epidemic.

In his first months in office, Biden has already indicated his desire to return to the Asia-Pacific – or Indo-Pacific, as has become officially more common – at the top of the US foreign policy agenda.

In keeping with his broader “America Is Back” diplomatic theme, Biden has resolved to maintain stability in the region at the core of his international initiative.

On Friday, Biden attended a virtual summit with leaders from India, Japan and Australia. “An independent and open Indo-Pacific is essential,” Biden told his fellow members of the so-called Quad. “The United States is committed to working with you, our allies, and all our allies to achieve stability.” As part of that effort and “to reduce the risk of escalation,” the senior official said efforts had been made since mid-February to engage with North Koreans, including what is known as the “New York Channel”. To date, the official said, “We have not received any response from Pyongyang.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic outreach.

As the administration formulated its strategy, the official said it would continue to consult with the Japanese and South Koreans as well as China, and also reached out to several former US officials involved in North Korea policy from the Trump presidency Was. .

Biden’s meeting with the Quad comes less than a week after US and South Korean negotiators over controversial years to arrive at a temporary deal to pay the US military presence in South Korea under Trump Hui. The agreement would be front and center in the meetings of Blinken and Austin, with a similar one for Japan.

As he did with allies in Europe, Trump threatened to reduce security cooperation until host countries paid more, anticipating the withdrawal of the military in times of particular uncertainty as China dominated the region And North Korea’s nuclear weapons remain the major source. Get angry.

“Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy, and we are working to strengthen US relations with our allies,” said Sung Kim, a diplomat who is the top US diplomat for Asia . Yet, for all of Biden’s suggestions that he would reverse Trump’s hostility with China, he has not yet retaliated with one of his earlier policies. They did, in fact, many of them, including maintaining a sanctions in response to human rights abuses in western Xinjiang and Hong Kong and restoring a Trump-era decision to dismiss almost all of China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea has confirmed.

And, many of China’s policies that the US finds objectionable – including its action in Hong Kong, rhetoric against Taiwan and action in the South China Sea – began during the Obama administration. The previous Democratic administration assumed the “axis of Asia” after a round of what they saw as the American disregard for the region during George W. Bush’s presidency, which at the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Was consumed.

In fact, although some apparent circumstances have changed since 2009, President Barack Obama’s first Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s initial foreign trip to Blink and Austin’s visit in many ways, when he traveled to Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and Then a trip to China to re-assert American interests in the Asia-Pacific. Obama’s engagement with China did not produce the desired results, and the North Korean threat increased.

Although China is not on a trip to Blinken, after wrapping up a stop in Seoul, he will head back to Washington via Anchorage, Alaska, where he and Sullivan meet senior Chinese officials. Austin, meanwhile, flies from Seoul to New Delhi, where he will meet top Indian leaders.