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World leaders spoke to President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday about their cooperation on the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and other issues, even as President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede complicates America’s post-election transition.
In his conversations with key Asian allies, Biden seemed determined to ease their uncertainties about a less engaged Washington, which has been built over the four years of Trump’s “America First” approach.
A look at their conversations:
SOUTH KOREA: The office of South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Biden, during their 14-minute call, reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to defend South Korea and said he was would coordinate closely with Seoul to defuse a nuclear standoff with North Korea.
Biden’s office said it had expressed its desire to strengthen the US-Korea alliance as a “pillar of security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.” Biden also praised Moon for South Korea’s gains in its anti-virus campaign and discussed cooperation for a global economic recovery and “the mutual interest of countries in strengthening democracy,” his office said.
Moon spokesperson Kang Min-seok said the executives also agreed to meet “maybe soon” after Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
Moon, who has ambitions for inter-Korean engagement, helped set up Trump’s leader-to-leader nuclear diplomacy with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who has now blocked disagreements by trading a release of crippling sanctions led by the United States against the North and the North. The stages of disarmament in the North.
But Seoul also struggled to deal with an unconventional US president who saw far less value in alliances than his predecessors. Trump has consistently complained about the cost of parking 28,500 American troops in South Korea. A cost-sharing agreement expired in 2019 and the two sides failed to agree on a replacement.
In an op-ed to South Korea’s Yonhap News ahead of the election, Biden promised to strengthen the alliance, rather than “extort Seoul with reckless threats to withdraw our troops.”
AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he invited Biden to Australia next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the countries common defense treaty. Morrison said he and Biden, during their call, made their commitment to strengthening the bilateral alliance clear.
“We agreed that there was no longer a critical moment for this alliance between us and the United States, but, more broadly, to work together, especially from like-minded countries and values that we hold and let’s share, working together to promote peace, and of course stability in the Indo-Pacific region, ”Morrison told reporters.
Biden said he looks forward to working closely with Morrison “on many common challenges, including containing the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting against future threats to global health; deal with climate change; lay the foundation for global economic recovery; strengthen democracy and maintain a safe and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, ”according to his office.
Australia is participating in full-scale military exercises with the United States, Japan and India this month for the first time since 2007.
Australia withdrew from the annual Malabar exercise after the 2007 naval exercises over concerns over relations with China. But relations between Australia and its biggest trading partner have since deteriorated, with Beijing refusing to respond to appeals from Australian government ministers.
JAPAN: Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he and Biden, during their appeal, reaffirmed the importance of their countries’ alliances and agreed to deepen them further in the face of growing Chinese influence and threat nuclear power plant in North Korea.
“We had a very meaningful phone conversation as I work with President-elect Biden to advance measures to strengthen the Japan-US alliance,” Suga told reporters after speaking to Biden on the phone for about 15 minutes. .
Biden’s office said the leaders “spoke about their shared commitment to tackling climate change, strengthening democracy around the world and strengthening the US-Japan alliance as a cornerstone of an Indo region. peaceful prosperous and secure. ”
Suga said he told Biden that Japan is keen to pursue “the free and open Indo-Pacific,” a vision it has promoted with the United States to include “like-minded” countries in the region, including Australia, India and South East Asia. countries that share concerns about China.
China has built and militarized man-made islands in the South China Sea, and claims almost all of the sea’s major fisheries and waterways. Japan is concerned about China’s claim to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands, known as Diaoyu in China, in the East China Sea.
China has denied being expansionist and said it was only defending its territorial rights.
Suga said Biden gave him assurances that Washington was determined to protect Japan’s territorial rights to the Senkaku under the bilateral security pact in the event of a military clash.
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PA editors Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea, Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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