Joe Biden, by organizing an unprecedented summit last Friday near Washington with Japan and South Korea, showed that he was continuing his strategy of multiplying alliances to face the adversaries of the United States, despite the fear of a change of tack during the next American presidential election.
Since Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House in early 2021, NATO has expanded and tightened its ranks in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In Asia, to face China, Washington forged an alliance with the United Kingdom and Australia (AUKUS) and relaunched the Quad, which also involves Australia, with Japan and India.
The United States was already close to South Korea and Japan, which between them host some 85,000 American soldiers. But they now also provide for joint military exercises over several years, a better exchange of information, and a hotline of alert.
“This administration fundamentally believes in the primacy – not the importance, the primacy – of partnerships,” said Jon Alterman, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, noting that such diplomatic partnerships can build trust among some. country to the United States.
“But the difficulty is that all our partners remember the former administration, they look at the polls, and they have no certainty about the position of the United States in two, five, ten years”, adds- he.
Donald Trump questioned the merits of the alliances, criticizing for example Germany and South Korea, which according to him did not invest enough in their own defense budget, while the United States ensured the presence of bases Americans at home.
The former president, campaigning to return to the White House, leads other Republican candidates in the primary polls.
In addition, American support for massive military aid to Ukraine is waning.
“The Americas-first policy, getting away from the rest of the world, has made us weaker, not stronger,” Joe Biden said on Friday alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon. Suk Yeol.
“America is strong with our allies and alliances, and that’s how we’re going to endure,” the Democrat said.
If in Europe, Washington benefits from a collective alliance – NATO -, the case of Asia is quite different: Washington has forged bilateral alliances, in particular because of the animosity between Seoul and Tokyo.
With relations easing, the two countries made possible the Camp David summit on Friday – and the alliance strategy devised by Joe Biden.
These three affirmed at the summit their vision of an “international order based on the rule of law” – a signal to China but also to Russia in its war against Ukraine, that Japan and South Korea South argue.
Beijing also took a dim view of the Camp David summit, media close to the government seeing it as a “mini-NATO”, even if there is no promise of mutual assistance in the event of a assault.
This is probably not even wanted by the three countries, said Shihoko Goto, a researcher specializing in Asia at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, who sees Friday’s agreement as a new element in a “tangle” of alliances.
Within “a multiple approach, it could actually be very strong,” she adds.
Joe Biden has taken a bilateral approach with countries that worry about the power of China or Russia. He intends to travel to Vietnam soon, as relations with Beijing are strained.
But its bet to get closer to India went against the country’s historical neutrality and its refusal to take part in major alliances – New Delhi is nevertheless a member of the “Brics” group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), States which are meeting this week in Johannesburg.
The concern that weighs on the sustainability of these alliances with the United States is not only due to a possible return of Donald Trump to the White House. Yoon Suk Yeol will notably have to leave the South Korean presidency in 2027.
“If a far-left president is elected in South Korea and a far-right leader in Japan, or if Trump or someone like him wins in the United States, just one of them could derail everything. the valuable work these countries are doing right now,” said Duyeon Kim, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington.
22/08/2023 05:18:04 – Washington (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
