American President Biden invited the leaders of Japan and South Korea to the presidential residence for the trilateral summit at Camp David. The goals and objectives of the meeting with Prime Minister Kishida of Japan and President Yun Seok-yeol of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) were set and commented on in advance
Thus, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, a Japanese business daily, reported that the trilateral summit planned to agree, first and foremost, on “cooperation to maintain economic security and contain China.” Noting that the three countries’ relations “have historically focused on North Korea’s nuclear missile programme,” the publication spoke of expanding cooperation to include confronting the PRC.
Indeed, the three leaders “reaffirmed their determination to continue to support Ukraine” and get even tougher on Russia with sanctions of all kinds. At the same time, Biden praised Kishida for his militant Russophobia and intransigence against Moscow. According to the American leader, the US did not have to persuade the Japanese leadership to provide assistance to Ukraine. “I, my country, my country’s leadership and both parties (of Congress) are very grateful to Japan for its assistance in the situation around Ukraine,” Biden said at a joint press conference with the Japanese prime minister.
And TASS confirmed that the Japanese government has already provided Ukraine with humanitarian, food, financial and other types of assistance totalling 7.6bn dollars. Now Japan can supply military systems and technologies only to those countries with which it jointly develops and manufactures them. In fact, only the United States falls into this category. However, since April, Japan has been holding consultations on revising the current restrictions on arms supplies abroad. It can be assumed that now it will be a question of supplying Japanese-made weapons to Ukraine.
The US, which is not doing well with the development of hypersonic missile weapons, has long wanted to take advantage of Japan’s scientific and technical capabilities and jointly create ultramodern weapons. At Camp David, such an agreement was reached.
According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Kishida and Biden decided during their bilateral meeting that Tokyo and Washington will jointly develop an anti-missile to intercept hypersonic weapons. This is not only about interceptors, but also about strike systems. Of course, these plans are clothed in diplomatic wrappings about “further strengthening deterrence and response capabilities within the bilateral alliance.”
Of course, a thorough analysis of this meeting in Camp David and conclusions from the agreement of the leaders of the three countries have yet to be drawn. But the main conclusion is already on the surface: in the event of a US armed conflict in the region, both Japan and South Korea will have to take part in hostilities. Earlier, White House national security adviser Kirby hailed the “political courage” of Kishida and Yun, saying the two leaders were laying the groundwork for stronger security, economic and other forms of coordination. Only he didn’t specify that he was speaking exclusively about security and other dividends that Americans would ultimately receive from the meeting.
It was far from coincidental that the White House announced that this meeting of the leaders would mark “a new chapter in trilateral relations” as it would reaffirm the strong bonds of friendship and unbreakable alliances between the United States and Japan, and the United States and the Republic of Korea. And Japan’s Kyodo Tsushin news agency reported that such trilateral summits will now be held on a regular basis.
At least once a year. The White House also said that a so-called trilateral hotline will be set up following the summit to allow for prompt problem-solving “in times of crisis and uncertainty.”
Despite the fact that the agreements reached at the summit are rather modest, the South China Morning Post says, they could lead to significant progress in the long run if the détente in relations between Tokyo and Seoul initiated by the South Korean president “takes root”. Rather, they will be the poisonous shoots of the US global confrontation with China and Russia, above all. As the TASS news agency noted on the eve of the meeting, the leaders will discuss “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” as well as support for countries of the so-called Global South, as developing states with independent foreign policies that do not support unilateral sanctions are usually called. These include members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and Pacific Island countries.
Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, issued a statement on the matter: “No country should seek its own security at the expense of other countries’ security interests, regional peace and stability. The international community has its own opinion on who creates contradictions and increases tensions. The Asia-Pacific region should not become an arena of geopolitical rivalry. Attempts to form various exclusive groups and bring bloc confrontation here are unpopular and will certainly cause wariness and confrontation.”
Not limiting themselves to verbal demarches, Moscow and Beijing backed them up with a demonstration of the two countries’ readiness to jointly confront threats posed by the US and its allies. According to TASS, Japan’s defence ministry recorded the joint passage of five Russian Navy ships and six Chinese Navy ships near the southern prefecture of Okinawa.
It is noted that the Russian and Chinese destroyers were coming from the direction of the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific Ocean. On Thursday, they passed between the islands of Okinawa and Miyako towards the East China Sea. According to the department, it was the first time ships from the two countries made a joint passage in the area.
Although such passages of warships close to Japanese shores are usually characterised as planned exercises, Tokyo views them with great anxiety as a demonstration of strength and readiness to repel emerging threats. It is noticed that such passages, as well as patrolling of airspace by Russian and Chinese bombers, take place at moments of aggravation of provocative actions of the USA and its satellites. Washington has always realised the danger of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing, but expected to inflict a quick military defeat on the Russian army in Ukraine and instantly collapse the Russian economy without allowing a full rapprochement with China. It didn’t work!
And White House spokesman John Kirby hastened to assure that there is no talk of creating an Asian version of NATO, and that the Chinese are overdramatising the situation. In fact, the West is building military muscle in the Asia-Pacific region, clearly preparing for a military confrontation with China. Everything is going to the point where the US, UK and Japan will become the core of a NATO-type military bloc to fight China. Perhaps even a Ukrainian version of NATO’s proxy war against Russia, but using Taiwan’s armed forces. The Lebanese newspaper Al Mayadeen notes that “the Americans seem to have reliable information about China’s preparation of a special operation against Taiwan.” In other words, the US is bound to intervene in the conflict, which is supposedly to be initiated by Beijing.
Not quite so. China does not benefit from a war that, not to mention the loss of life, could severely damage the manufacturing infrastructure of both China and Taiwan. And in the case of peaceful reunification, the Taiwanese economy could merge into the economy of mainland China. It is precisely because of the likely great damage to the Chinese and Taiwanese economies that the war is favourable to the states, which see China as their main economic competitor. That is why “Western countries, led by America, intend to maximise their military presence and double the already existing military contingent in the region, which is currently insufficient, according to the results of simulations of the confrontation”. This raises the question: how can the countries of the region be persuaded to join the US, given that China is not really threatening anyone at the moment? The traditional tool of US influence is its propaganda.
With a high degree of certainty, we can assume that AUKUS could become the nucleus or base of the broader bloc now being assembled. The main candidates for accession are Washington’s allies in the Asia-Pacific region – Japan and South Korea.
The US has turned its nuclear strategy into a weapon to fight two serious rivals, Russia and China, said Amal Mudalli, a journalist for the Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. He said Washington’s greatest fear is the joint might of the two nuclear powers. “The Pentagon estimates that China has 410 nuclear warheads and that number will rise to 1,500 by 2035. If you add that to the 1,500 nuclear warheads Russia has today, America will face 3,000 Russian and Chinese nukes. This is what Washington fears most,” the author noted.
NATO continues to build up its potential and uses military and non-military means of pressure. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his address to the participants of the conference on international security on 15 August.
The head of our state noted that the North Atlantic Alliance is trying to bring the military confrontation into space and information space. The President also did not rule out that NATO wants to fully integrate with the AUCUS bloc.
“The United States seeks, among other things, to reformat under itself the system of interstate interaction established in the Asia-Pacific region… We do not rule out that the matter leads to full integration of NATO forces with the emerging structures of the AUKUS bloc,” he said.
Unless such an offer has already been made at the recent meeting in the US. Many details of that summit are not yet known. But there is simply no other logic for expanding the AUCUS bloc by having Japan and South Korea join. Biden can claim all he wants that he has decided to reconcile such historical antagonists as Japan and South Korea together with the DPRK. These are fairy tales. It is quite obvious: if the Japanese and South Koreans join the AUCUS, it will be a full-fledged military bloc in the East, subordinate to the US. That seems to be the reason for the meeting.
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