WASHINGTON (AP) – A new deal with South Korea to share the cost of maintaining U.S. troops on the Korean peninsula is early evidence that President Joe Biden is shifting the U.S. approach to alliances in Asia and beyond. It shows that it will cut allies to build unity in competition against China and Russia.
President Donald Trump had demanded that South Korea pay billions more to keep U.S. troops on the ground. In his view, the United States was fleeing what he suggested were self-propelled allies. Initially, Trump insisted that the South Korean government should pay five times more than before. Seoul was wrong, diplomacy went nowhere, and relations with a treaty ally began to break down.
Biden, on the other hand, was satisfied with an increase of 13.9% and with follow-up increases that put the problem on hold.
Biden’s view is that well-functioning alliances are key to competing with China, which his administration considers America’s biggest long-term security challenge, along with Russia. Biden’s promise to focus more on Asia reflects the commitments of the two previous administrations, with both with their plans hampered by persistent turbulence in the Middle East. In a sign that Biden could face similar obstacles, his first known military attack was against extremist targets in Syria.
In what the White House called a sign of Biden’s commitment to the partnership in the Asia-Pacific region, it will virtually meet with leaders from three other regional headquarters on Friday: India, Australia and Japan. Biden also sends Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea next week for security consultations; Back home, Blinken will join Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan for talks with Chinese officials in Alaska.
A few days before last November’s election, candidate Biden foreshadowed his intentions for Seoul in an opinion piece he wrote for South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. He praised the role of the South Koreans in a “blood-forged” alliance and promptly promised a new approach to Seoul if it won.
“Words matter, and a president’s words matter even more,” Biden wrote. “As president, I will stand by South Korea, strengthening our alliance to safeguard peace in East Asia and beyond, rather than extorting Seoul with reckless threats to eliminate our troops.” He promised a “diplomacy of principles.”
He could also have mentioned quick diplomacy. Last weekend, US and South Korean negotiators reached an agreement that, if ratified by the South Korean national assembly, would end a stalemate over Seoul’s share of the cost of maintaining about 28,500. American soldiers on the Korean peninsula. The troops serve as a symbol of the United States’ commitment to a defense treaty born of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The new cost-sharing agreement comes after an agreement by the Trump administration in March 2019, which required Seoul to pay approximately 1 trillion Korean won, the approximate equivalent of $ 910 million. Trump then demanded a five-fold increase from 2020. The South Korean government refused.
Biden took office in January with what he apparently saw as an opportunity to end acrimony, and the State Department negotiating team quickly ended a multi-year deal that requires a 13.9% increase. of Seoul payments this year, followed by four years of equal increases. to increases in its defense budget.
“This administration is trying to say that alliances are important to us,” said Bruce Bennett, an Asian specialist at RAND Corp., adding that this goes beyond South Korea to include other traditional Asian allies such as Japan. . Biden officials “know they have a substantial problem trying to deal with the Chinese threat. Therefore, closer ties with allies are a key part of the strategy. “
Japan and South Korea have for decades been the cornerstones of the U.S. defense strategy in the broader Asia-Pacific region, which the top U.S. commander, Admiral Philip Davidson, has called “the region more consistent for the future of America. ” Last month, the U.S. and Japan agreed to a one-year extension of their cost-sharing agreement for the presence of U.S. troops; the State Department said this allowed more time to negotiate a longer deal.
Part of the backdrop to the rapid agreement with Seoul is Biden’s focus on China’s military modernization, its ambitions to be a world power, and its potential to help contain North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
“There is a widespread view in the Biden administration that the US should deal with China from a position of strength, which requires strengthening our alliances and renewing our own country,” Bonnie S. Glaser said. , director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Trump was barely the first president to push the Allies to pay more than the cost of hosting U.S. forces. The difference was that Trump took an inflexible (some would say insulting) approach to European and Asian allies that disagreed with his Pentagon leaders, starting with Jim Mattis, who highly valued alliance cooperation. This difference was a key reason why Mattis resigned in December 2018.
In addition to trying to get more money out of Seoul, Trump had questioned the need for U.S. military exercises with South Korea, calling them a waste and an affront to North Korea.
Jonathan D. Pollack, an East Asian policy expert at the Brookings Institution, said it’s no surprise that Biden is moving quickly to make a cost-sharing deal with Seoul and ease tensions from the Trump administration.
“If the administration is serious, as I think they are, trying to restore some normalcy to alliance relations, this is a very good way to do that,” Pollack said. He thinks this also applies to Europe, where U.S. relations with NATO allies were forced by Trump’s demands to share defense burdens.
“I think it’s indicative of how I hope Biden will proceed on other fronts as well in terms of improving the alliance,” he said.