Mr. Joe Biden will have his first overseas trip as US President in June next. Photo: AFP AFP news agency (France) quoted the White House on April 23, saying that President Biden will come to the UK to attend the summit of the world’s leading industrialized countries (G7). Next, the US leader went to Brussels to attend the meetings of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated that Mr. Biden’s first visit would highlight the leader’s commitment to restoring the alliance, revitalizing the transatlantic relationship and acting to align with multilateral allies and partners to solve global challenges, while ensuring American interests. According to AFP, former President Donald Trump has made decisions that affect the relationship between the US and its allies in Europe and Asia. Meanwhile, Mr. Biden has focused on the urgency of rebuilding traditional allies and bringing Washington back to the center of groups like the G7. The White House did not mention whether President Biden would hold a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on this trip. However, on April 13, the US leader offered to meet directly with President Putin in a third country in the coming months with the aim of reducing bilateral ties. The G7 summit is scheduled to take place June 11-13 in Cornwall, UK. Ms. Psaki said President Biden will “reaffirm his commitment to multilateralism, strengthen U.S. policy priorities on public health, economic recovery, climate change and justify costs. common values, solidarity among the democratic countries ”. The G7 summit is also an opportunity for leaders of member countries to hold bilateral meetings. Regarding the NATO summit on June 14, Ms. Psaki said that the White House boss Biden would “reinforce the US commitment to NATO, transatlantic security and collective security”. In addition, Ms. Psaki emphasized: “NATO leaders will discuss this approach to orient the military bloc against future threats and ensure effective burden sharing”. Ms. Psaki said President Biden also plans to attend the US-EU summit to “emphasize the US commitment to the transatlantic partnership based on the sharing of values ​​and benefits”.

Mr. Zelensky (left) and Mr. Putin Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was welcome in Moscow “at any time” but stressed that he should discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine directly with the separatists. “If we are talking about bilateral relations, by all means, we are ready to welcome the President of Ukraine at any time convenient for him,” the Russian leader said during a meeting with the Belarusian leader. Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, according to Tass . Putin’s invitation to Zelensky came in response to this week’s request by the President of Ukraine to meet the two leaders in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting intensified between the Kyiv army and the faction. Pro-Moscow separatism has raised concerns about an all-out war. Ukraine, the European Union and the US have recently set off alarm bells about Russian troops gathering troops on the borders of the former Soviet Union country. Moscow said the military was conducting drills in response to NATO exercises and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday ordered the army to return to its permanent base by May 1. “If President Zelensky wants to begin to heal relations, we certainly welcome,” Putin told reporters as he began talks with President Lukashenko. But the Russian leader said that if Mr. Zelensky hoped to solve the problems stemming from the fighting in eastern Ukraine, he should first meet with the leaders of the separatist zones in Donetsk and Lugansk. “And it was only then that these matters were discussed with representatives of third countries, in this case Russia,” Putin said. Kiev has been fighting the separatists in areas east of Donetsk and Lugansk since 2014. The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people, and has seen about 30 Ukrainian soldiers perished since the beginning of 2021, compared with the number 50 of the whole 2020. Sponsorship news

Nikkei Asia newspaper quoted sources as saying that this employee was called “Mr. Y” in the Japanese intelligence community. He once told contacts in Tokyo that he was ill. Some government sources say Japan and North Korea have lost a “behind-the-scenes negotiation channel”.

Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, and efforts to normalize relations have become strained because of the past abductions of Japanese citizens and Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attends a meeting with key officials in Pyongyang. Photo: KCNA

According to sources, “Mr. Y” is known to be a subordinate of “Mr. X” – a senior North Korean security official who paved the way for a first-ever bilateral summit. was held in 2002 between the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Along with “Mr. X”, this liaison officer took part in negotiations regarding Mr. Koizumi’s 2002 visit to North Korea. He is also in charge of negotiating a 2014 bilateral agreement signed in Stockholm on negotiating principles aimed at addressing kidnapping in the past.

In 2014, he informed Japan that two men missing in the late 1970s were still living in North Korea. These two, Minoru Tanaka, went missing at the age of 28 after boarding a plane to Vienna at Narita Airport, and Tatsumitsu Kaneda working at the same ramen shop as Tanaka. Meanwhile, Pyongyang has repeatedly stated that Tanaka has never entered North Korea.

Japan officially lists 17 people kidnapped by North Korea, of which five were repatriated after the landmark 2002 summit in which leader Kim Jong-il admitted North Korea kidnapped. Japanese citizenship.

“Mr. Y” also acts as the mediator for a secret meeting in Mongolia in 2014 between Mr. Shigeru Yokota and Ms. Sakie Yokota, 85, the parents of the kidnapping victim Megumi Yokota and her niece. Megumi Kim Eun-gyong.

Megumi Yokota, who was kidnapped in 1977 at the age of 13, was on her way home from school. She has become the symbol of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea.

Along with the families of the other kidnapped people, Sakie Yokota met with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga last week to call for the early repatriation of their loved ones ahead of scheduled talks between the prime minister and US President Joe Biden. took place on April 16 in Washington.

The unidentified employee, the sources said, succeeded “Mr. X” about 10 years ago, and entered into negotiations with Japan in a third country such as China and Mongolia.

Fluent in Japanese, he communicated with Japanese officials on his anti-eavesdropping cell phone. He is believed to have had a disease related to the brain or circulatory system, but may have been fired amid negotiations between Japan and North Korea stalled.

Prime Minister Suga, who served as a kidnapping minister under his predecessor Shinzo Abe, said after taking office last September that he was ready to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong Il’s son without prerequisites.

But now, Mr. Suga is struggling to find a new negotiating channel when Pyongyang closes its border to the COVID-19 pandemic prevention.

What appears to be the only door of opportunity now closed after North Korea decided not to participate in the Tokyo Olympics this summer, also citing the need to prevent viral infections.

President Suga’s office declined to comment.

Mr. Song Il-ho is the Korean Ambassador in charge of negotiating the normalization of relations with Japan. However, the Japanese government source said he was not one of the secret negotiators with more decision-making power.

Now, more than anyone, Americans feel very clearly that the lion has awakened and with his endless claws and ambitions, gradually from partner to rival of America. Mr. Joe Biden has chosen a different method from his predecessor: re-establishing alliances to control this ferocious “lion” has just awakened.

That’s exactly what President Biden’s administration is doing. Rotate the shaft to Europe; promoting the actual formation of the US – Japan – Australia – India “Diamond Four” mechanism. And strengthening 3-way relations with 2 partners, 2 top US allies in Northeast Asia: Japan, South Korea.

An offer cannot be refused

That is a relationship with many ups and downs spanning many decades in history.

In the early 1960s, when China had just acquired nuclear weapons and the Vietnam War was on the rise, President Johnson’s administration sought to promote relations with Japan. and Korea aimed to counter the communist movement in Asia. But, in order to reinforce this triangular relationship, it was the Johnson administration’s job at the time to “repair” the bilateral relationship between Japan and Korea, which had continued to tense after grievances in the past. World War 2.

Mr. Joe Biden has different methods from his predecessor. Photo: LG

The US had in hand a “trump card” to solve this dilemma: the superior military and economic strength at that time. Who pays, he or she has the right to order music! While Japan and South Korea continued negotiations that lasted more than 13 years, since 1951, aimed at normalizing bilateral relations, American diplomats have delivered a fairly simple message: what if Japan Japan and South Korea have established a friendly relationship, the US will continue to provide both military and economic support for both partners.

Simply put, it is an irrefutable offer! On June 22, 1965, at the Prime Minister’s Palace in Tokyo, the representatives of Japan and Korea signed the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korea, often referred to as the Japan-Korea Treaty. This treaty provided the basic foundation for restoring diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan, which had been interrupted since 1945.

By the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan continued the policy direction of promoting relations between Japan and South Korea. With the encouragement of the United States, South Korean President Choon Do-hwan and Japanese Prime Minister Nakasone Yasuhiro held the first summit in 1983 and 1984. The United States also pledged to ensure security for Korea. , reassessed strong support for Japan, while calling on Tokyo to play a greater role in ensuring security in Asia.

By the late 1990s, the US began a new step in its relationship with two allies in Northeast Asia: the US – Japan – Korea triangle relationship. To foster this relationship, a Tripartite Monitoring and Cooperation Group (TCOG) has been formed as well as the implementation of the “Perry Process” (named US Secretary of Defense William Perry), which is the to the expert level to help policymakers of the three sides have conditions to discuss and exchange to strengthen cooperation between the US and Japan and South Korea …

“Thorn” in a 3-way game

However, the US will have to make a lot more effort if Biden’s policy of strengthening relations with Northeast Asian allies will be effective, because the Japan-Korea relationship has recently shown signs of developing. Fierce disputes, no signs of cooling down.

For more than three decades after the signing of the Japan-Korea Treaty, the two sides continued to argue over different interpretations of the treaty, which exempted Japan from any compensation for the period of its occupation. during World War 2.

In 2018, the Supreme Court of Korea suddenly ruled that Japanese companies must compensate victims of forced labor during the war. After this controversial ruling, the relationship between the two sides quickly turned in a bad way. Both Seoul and Tokyo are excluded from the list of most favored nation states in trade relations. While Tokyo imposed restrictions on the export of key raw materials on Korea’s large-scale semiconductor industry and many other items, a nationwide boycott campaign took place. items made in Japan. Japanese businesses are also the subject of anti-countermeasure campaigns in Korea …

The dispute between the two sides culminated when in August 2019, Seoul announced that it was likely to withdraw from the Treaty on Important Information Sharing with Tokyo, which was signed in 2016; South Korea will only continue to cooperate with Japan in military information, through a trilateral information-sharing agreement, in which the US plays an intermediary role.

This action threatened the US-Japan-Korea alliance structure in the context of Northeast Asia geopolitics frequently “red alert” due to tensions on the Korean Peninsula. However, just a few hours before the Japan Intelligence Sharing Treaty expires, Seoul decided to extend the treaty, a move that made the United States relieved, relieved of its thousands of pounds that threatened to destroy it. broken US – Japan – Korea triangular relations.

Throughout 2020, the bilateral relationship between Korea and Japan did not improve significantly. Most recently, the Korean Defense White Paper announced in February 2021 no longer calls Japan “partner”, a worrying signal for the relationship between the two sides. In the context of the COVID-19 epidemic raging around the world, travel restrictions have further reduced opportunities for exchanges between people of the two countries, making the ability to restore Japan-Korea relations very difficult. towel.

Japan remains an economic powerhouse. Photo: LG

The currency is the currency ahead of Wisdom

During his four years in the White House, Mr. Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of allies in Northeast Asia, repeatedly debating the costs of maintaining US troops in both Korea and Japan. Copy. Those moves have undermined the US’s ability to assume the unwritten role of being a (key) party building a bridge between Seoul and Tokyo. This leads to the fact that the US – Japan – Korea triangular relationship has fallen into the bleakest situation in the last months of the Trump term.

Aware of the damage caused by his predecessor, the Biden administration seeks to reorganize the trilateral alliance relationship. It is important not to let either partner feel the US is biased towards the other.

However, it is obvious that due to the different geographical location, history, political regime as well as the size of the economies of each party, the value of each Northeast Asian ally to the United States is also. different.

Outperformed by China (to become the second largest economy in the world), Japan remains an economic powerhouse. But, this economy is increasingly dependent on Chinese markets, capital sources and production chains. Therefore, Japan is careful when choosing its position, ensuring to gain the greatest benefits in the context of the fierce Sino-US confrontation.

Tokyo’s optimal choice is to build a relationship just enough with the US to avoid falling into a passive position in the Sino-Japanese relationship, as a bargaining chip with China; while maintaining its role as a trusted US ally to deal with the security challenges that have recently emerged on the Korean Peninsula.

Compared to Japan, South Korea is more dependent on the US for the military but more on China economically. The US is the only ally, and China is Seoul’s biggest trading partner. Korea cannot and does not want to have to choose between either party. Maintaining a relatively neutral position between the US and China is also a sensible choice for Seoul.

In order to serve the strategy of rebuilding allied relations in Northeast Asia, not only actively mediating the difficult relationship between Japan and South Korea, the US must also actively involve Japan. and South Korea is back in a trajectory that is allied with America itself. At the end of February, the US and Japan signed a cost-sharing agreement for the US military stationed in Japan. By early March, the US reached an agreement with South Korea to sign the XI Special Bilateral Military Cost-Sharing Agreement (SMA) for a period of six years.

These are the economic levers that were used decades ago and they are still in effect today.

The money (of the US) is the smart money!