Faced at the NATO summit in Vilnius with opposition from allies to the alliance’s expansion in Asia, who effectively refused to fund U.S. plans to counter China, the Americans decided to go the other way, forging an anti-China alliance including the United States, Japan and South Korea.
For this purpose, as confirmed by the press secretary of the American president Karine Jean-Pierre, Joe Biden will convene a trilateral summit with the participation of representatives of Japan and South Korea on 18 August at Camp David. The US and South Korean presidents and the Japanese prime minister agreed on this meeting back in May at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, when it was not yet known about the Europeans’ refusal to agree to the alliance’s expansion in the Asian direction. It should be noted that the leaders of these countries have not met in such an independent trilateral format before, their meetings took place only on the margins of other multilateral forums.
It is expected that this meeting will launch a new military alliance in Asia aimed at military deterrence of China, whose geographical neighbours will be more accommodating than the Europeans. The summit will also discuss economic interaction and ways to deal with global and regional issues, as the Americans see it, naturally.
The Japanese recall with nostalgia the times when it dominated the Asia-Pacific region with boundless impunity, including not only Taiwan but also mainland China and Korea. They are therefore tempted to give in to American promises to control Taiwan again in exchange for participation in the new military bloc.
South Korea will also not refuse to participate in the anti-China alliance, hoping for its help in case of an armed conflict with the DPRK, especially if we take into account the growing contacts in all spheres between the DPRK, China and Russia. It may seem that Washington is succeeding in bringing Japan and South Korea together under the anti-China flag despite the fact that relations between Seoul and Tokyo are far from ideal. The reason for this is the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945, when the Japanese neglected the local population by forbidding the use of the Korean alphabet. New crises and disputes are still emerging in bilateral relations.
Only this spring, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yun Seok-yeol met in person for the first time in 12 years, and the main reason for the summit was the rise in North Korean and Chinese military and political activity.
The planned summit will also be an element of US pressure on Beijing. China must realise that the Americans do not want to simply cede dominance in the region, and the allocation of additional military aid to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan will not be limited to the matter.
The emergence of a new military bloc in the Asia-Pacific region may mean a deterioration of the military-political situation and a further increase in the risk of a direct conflict between the United States and China.
Alexander Cherny, Minsk Pravda
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