Blinken on Asia trip to boost alliances
2021-03-16
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Biden Administration's Priorities for US Foreign Policy on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US, March 10, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]
Restoring US credibility and reasserting a leadership that promotes regional peace and stability, not the opposite, should be Secretary of State Antony Blinken's top priority, experts said as Blinken on Monday began a visit taking in Japan and the Republic of Korea.
It is Blinken's first foreign trip since taking over as the United States' top diplomat in January.
"As the leader of its alliances in East Asia, it is Washington's responsibility to provide a good leadership that promotes regional peace, stability and prosperity, while bad leadership would stir up tensions and incite confrontation in the region," said Yu Qiang, a researcher of Japanese studies at the University of International Relations in Beijing.
Yuzo Tanaka, a professor of economics at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, expects Blinken will focus on long-vision goals for the greater good of humanity such as "climate change and economic revitalization after the pandemic".
The trip is also viewed as a prelude to the first in-person diplomatic encounter between the US and China－the world's largest economies－since US President Joe Biden took office on Jan 20.
After meetings by Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Tokyo and Seoul, the US' top diplomat will travel on to Alaska and join Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, in a meeting with China's Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi and State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
A growing view
In an opinion article published in The Washington Post on Monday, Blinken and Austin said the purpose of their trip was to revitalize the US' alliances and, by doing so, promote US interests.
"The op-ed reflected Washington's growing view that the US needs to recover from the battering it has taken on the world stage following (former US president) Donald Trump's temperamental approach and work more closely with allies to gain greater leverage," Yu said in Beijing. "To do that, the US needs to first mend ties between Tokyo and Seoul."
The relationship between Japan and the ROK has been strained for years over wartime labor, historical issues and trade disputes.
Addressing the matter, Blinken and Austin wrote: "We're also focused on revitalizing the relationships between and among our allies."
On Tuesday, they were expected to have"2+2" diplomatic and security talks with their Japanese counterparts. They will then head to Seoul on Wednesday.
Yu said that while US efforts to help soothe the prickly ties between Tokyo and Seoul were sure to be on the agenda, the US secretaries' time in Seoul will also be taken up with a tentative agreement that Washington and Seoul negotiators had reached for the ROK to pay more toward the US troop presence in the country.
The agreement, along with a similar one for Japan, will be front and center in Blinken and Austin's meetings, Yu said.
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