US President Joe Biden touted the historic defense agreements with the leaders of South Korea and Japan at Camp David on Friday, even though several mishaps at his press conference at the end of the three-way summit, blurred the message a bit.
The United States, South Korea and Japan were expected to establish an enduring tripartite security regime in defense of the Indo-Pacific region — a move China opposes as antagonistic — at their first three-way summit, said foreign policy experts.
And moving into a truly trilateral security arrangement—in which Seoul and Tokyo share the same obligations to each other that they each hold with Washington—is a big deal, but a politically risky step for both.
Their mutual enmity dates back to the early 20th century, when Japan held Korea as a colony, and especially to World War II, when Japanese troops forced Korean men into slave labor and Korean women into forced prostitution. South Koreans’ demands for compensation and apologies—and Japan’s refusal to comply—have been central issues in the two countries’ relations.
Joe Biden is renowned for blunders in public speeches, and the US president did not disappoint on the latest occasion, as he gave an end-of-summit press conference at Camp David in Maryland.
Flanked by Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Joe Biden hailed the just-signed trilateral pact on joint military exercises and intelligence sharing. However, the 80-year-old POTUS’ speech contained a number of gaffes and contentious remarks.
Biden misidentified Japan’s prime minister as the “president” of Japan, then forgot to unplug his earpiece, and then marched off the stage without performing the customary handshakes for the photographers, leaving Fumio Kishida and Yoon Suk-yeol looking a little embarrassed as they clasped hands and grinned behind his back.
Sources: Sputnik News, CNN,
