US Secretaries of State and Defense met with their Japanese colleagues on their first trip abroad since taking office.
Video transcription
ROB MCBRIDE: This high-level visit is a confirmation of the importance of East Asia in the world view of the new administration of President Joe Biden of the United States. And the mission had as its particular objective the registration of the human rights of Myanmar and China.
ANTHONY BLINKEN: In Burma, the military is trying to overturn the results of a Democratic election and brutally repressing peaceful protesters. And China uses coercion and aggression to systematically erode autonomy in Hong Kong, undermine democracy in Taiwan, abuse human rights in Xinjiang and Tibet.
ROB MCBRIDE: Japan has sought support against China’s territorial claims to the islands administered by Tokyo. And it did so with the promise of responding to China’s attempts to control the seas that surround it.
LLOYD AUSTIN: In addressing China’s aggressive and coercive behaviors, especially in the South and East China seas, I know that Japan shares our concerns about China’s destabilizing actions.
– Japan has also obtained a guarantee from the United States that it remains committed to the complete denuclearization of its neighbor, North Korea. But more fundamentally, this visit is a chance to restart relations after four tumultuous years under Donald Trump’s previous administration.
TINA BURRETT: So you think that we are completely confused. So I think there is an appreciation that Biden seems to have a much more focused strategy.
MASON RICHEY: In principle, the US will be, under the Biden government, much more concerned with how the US talks to its allies.
ROB MCBRIDE: On Wednesday, this mission continues to South Korea, where dealing with North Korea will dominate the agenda with concerns about Pyongyang’s lack of any response to the US’s repeated attempts at dialogue.
JEN PSAKI: Of course, diplomacy is always our goal. Our goal is to reduce the risk of aggravation. But so far, we have received no response.
ROB MCBRIDE: Timed to coincide with this diplomatic mission and the resumption of joint military exercises between US and South Korean forces is a forceful attack by the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Yo-Jong, telling Americans not to cause harm smell in this part of the world, a warning of how relationships can slip back into the noise of the bitter saber of the past. Rob McBride, Al Jazeera, Seoul.
– Well, Jonathan Berkshire Miller is a senior member of the Japan Institute of International Affairs. He joined us now via Skype from Ottawa. It’s great to have you with us at this news hour. We heard in that report that there were a lot of warm words for Japan. Do you think Japanese governments will be more relaxed after this initial visit?
JONATHAN BERKSHIRE MILLER: Oh, thank you so much for having me. I think the Japanese government will absolutely feel more relaxed. Some points to note, I think that the fact that the two plus two and the trips by the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense took place initially in Japan and South Korea, I think it is significant.
There are a number of different priorities on which the Biden government could have focused internationally, many challenges to the credibility of the United States in the past four years of the previous government. But the fact that they chose to travel first to Japan and then to South Korea, I think it was well considered.
The second important element is how this fits in with China. As you know, the United States will meet with Chinese officials later this week in Alaska. And the idea that they didn’t decide to embark on a trip to China, to the Chinese mainland, but instead ask the Chinese to meet them in Alaska in the middle of winter, I think it’s another sense of symbolism that wasn’t lost in Tokyo.
– Will it – will the Chinese see it as some kind of contempt?
JONATHAN BERKSHIRE MILLER: Well, I think they’re realizing the situation they’re in. I think this meeting took place in Japan. And I think there will be similar themes in South Korea. Part of the language in the joint statement, for example, is quite straightforward.
And while the US and Japan alliance is always focused on China’s challenges, so that there is such an explicit language about Chinese coercion, Chinese aggression, whether around the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, that is, in a way broader, the coercion economy that other partners, such as Australia and Canada are facing, was quite explicit.
So I think the Chinese are aware that even with this new government watching, things have not changed much structurally with this strategic competition.
– Given the way this trip has progressed so far and the events we look forward to in the coming days, what would you say is most important to the United States administration here? Is it against China and the threats from China or North Korea, which have long been a concern not only of the United States, but of the Western world in general and its neighbors in Asia?
JONATHAN BERKSHIRE MILLER: It is a good question. I think the United States will have to balance these two priorities. I think the short answer to your question is that the short, medium and long-term challenge in the region will be to address China’s rise and some of the elements of that rise. But North Korea cannot be forgotten either.
And I think we are seeing it happen now, as the Biden government made deals and had an initial chance to have a dialogue with the North Koreans and was rejected. So, you see on this trip, this is a chance, especially with South Korea, but also with your Japanese ally to articulate a strategy in North Korea and do it together with your allies.
– OK, great to hear your opinion. Thank you very much, Jonathan Berkshire Miller for joining us live from Ottawa. Thanks.
JONATHAN BERKSHIRE MILLER: Thanks.