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US Secretary of Defense Esper said South Korea is an ally with the United States against China.
It appears to be a'calculated pressure remark' ahead of the Korea-US Security Council next month, but in China there was a backlash that the US had crossed the line.
Reporter Kim Hye-young on the report.
<Reporter> The
US Secretary of Defense Esper, who gave a lecture on the US think tank, has listened specifically to allies including South Korea, emphasizing multilateral cooperation against China.
[Sper/U.S. Secretary of Defense: When China presents a potential conflict with the United States, the United States should not be considered alone.
You have to think of the United States, Japan, Australia, Korea, Singapore, etc.
We need to start multilateral cooperation.]
It has repeatedly emphasized the so-called'quad plus', multilateral military alliance initiative, raising NATO in Europe as an excellent standard of collective security to contain China.
Regarding, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi gave a kind of public warning, saying that the United States is trying to promote the New Cold War, and that it has crossed the Maginot Line.
Government officials said that the United States has not specifically proposed a multilateral military alliance, and evaluated it as creating an atmosphere.
However, an analysis comes out that it is Esper's calculated pressure remarks as it is ahead of the ROK-US Security Council by the defense ministers of the two countries next month.
[Park Chang-kwon / Defense Research Fellow, National Defense Research Institute: (The US) directly refers to China as the status quo change force, and has changed its policy in the same direction.
It is asking for closer security cooperation with the United States (to allies such as Korea)...
.]
Experts believe that no matter which party wins the US presidential election, the “anti-China multilateral system” stance is likely to continue.
(Video editing: Seungyeol Lee, CG: Junho Lee)