Wendy Sherman, 'Asia Tour 2nd Round' following Blincoln
Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the 'second-ranking U.S. State Department', will visit Japan, Korea and Mongolia from the 21st.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sherman is scheduled to hold consultations between South Korea, the US, and Japan with First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-gun and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori in Tokyo on the 21st, and then move to Seoul to discuss with South Korea-US Vice Foreign Ministers.
The U.S. State Department said that during the South Korea-U.S.-Japan consultations, cooperation on regional security issues such as North Korea and urgent common tasks such as climate change and international health will be discussed.
"This tour reaffirms the United States' commitment to maintaining a norm-based international order and working with our allies and partners for peace, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific," he said.
It was clear that the purpose of the tour was to check China's expansion of influence.
Therefore, Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman's visit appears to be part of an 'anti-China rally' aimed at China, which President Biden has always emphasized as 'the greatest threat to the United States'. This is the 'second round of the Asian tour' following US Secretary of State Blincoln's tour of Asia including Japan and Korea in March. Earlier, Secretary Blincoln visited Japan and South Korea sequentially with US Defense Secretary Austin in March, and then moved to Alaska separately to meet with China's Politburo Yang Jiechi. Following the quad video foreign ministers meeting of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan in February, they faced China as a 'finale' after solidifying their unity with their Asian allies.
After taking office, President Biden also attended the G7, EU and NATO summits after holding summit meetings with the leaders of Korea and Japan, starting with quad video summits in the United States, Japan, Australia, and India. At the G7 summit, in fact, it announced a 'better world rebuilding' to deter China's One Belt, One Road strategy, and in a NATO joint statement, it specified China as a "systemic challenge," and China's 'military ambitions' to the alliance. identified as a challenge. Furthermore, President Biden met Russian President Putin on the last tour of Europe, which was evaluated as symbolically showing how far President Biden's efforts to contain China can go. By stabilizing relations with Russia to a 'controllable level', it further solidified its focus on pressure from China.
Korea-US-Japan Vice Ministers' Council resumes after 4 years
...
possibility of regularization
Deputy Secretary Sherman's visit also means that South Korea, the US, and Japan will resume the first vice-ministerial level talks in four years.
The correct name is the Korea-U.S.-Japan Foreign Ministers' Council, which is the 8th meeting to be held on the 21st.
This consultative body was started as part of the Barack Obama administration's Asian rebalancing policy.
The first meeting was in April 2015 in Washington, D.C., where 1st Vice Minister Cho Tae-yong, then Deputy Minister Tony Blincoln, and Japanese Deputy Secretary General Saiki met.
After that, in January 2016, First Vice Minister Lim Seong-nam, Deputy Minister Blincoln, and Deputy Secretary General Saiki met in Tokyo, and then held meetings four times in that year alone, traveling between Seoul, Honolulu, and Tokyo in the United States.
In particular, the interest of the Obama administration was so great that at the 4th meeting held in Honolulu, USA in July of that year, then Vice President Biden gave a speech of encouragement.
Afterwards, the 6th and 7th meetings were held in Washington in January 2017 and in Seoul in October 2017, respectively, but after the Trump administration took office, the United States did not pay much attention to the alliance issue, and the Trilateral Vice Ministers' Council was practically a 'quiet period'. went in.
It is expected that Deputy Minister Sherman and other vice ministers of the three countries will agree to regularize the meeting at the 8th Vice Ministers' Council to be held on the 21st.
In fact, since its inauguration, the Biden administration has been concentrating on solidifying cooperation between South Korea, the US, and Japan by holding talks between the foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan, and the heads of security and intelligence services.
On the occasion of this visit by Deputy Minister Sherman, attention is paid to whether the Korea-US-Japan Vice Ministers' Council will become regular as well as de facto mediation to restore Korea-Japan relations.
In addition, it is also of interest to see if meaningful dialogue can take place at the Korea-Japan vice ministers meeting, which is held the day before the meeting between the South Korean, US and Japanese vice ministers.
Currently, there are many observations that it will be difficult to find a point of contact because there is a huge difference in positions on important issues such as the Japanese military comfort women issue, the forced mobilization issue, and the discharge of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
China was omitted from the announcement, but... Possibility of 'Visiting China' as a finale
Another reason why Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman's visit is attracting attention is that it is expected that this trip will be a preliminary suspension of the US-China ministerial meeting and ultimately the US-China summit. The possibility of holding a US-China summit is being discussed at the G20 summit, which will be held in Rome, Italy, in October. The U.S. State Department originally planned to announce a four-country tour plan for Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman to visit China via Japan, Korea and Mongolia on the 14th local time. But before the US State Department announced it, the Hong Kong South China Morning Post reported that 'Secretary Secretary Sherman and Vice Minister Xie Feng will meet next week in Tianjin,' either because of this or just a coincidence, the US State Department abruptly postponed the announcement plan.
In this regard, the U.S. State Department only explained to us that it was "revising the text of the announcement with the countries visited this time," but some observers are saying, "Isn't it delayed because the Chinese side judged that they had leaked information favorable to their country to the media before the official announcement? This came out. And on the 15th, one day after the scheduled date, the US State Department announced the itinerary for the trip to three countries except for China. Shortly after the announcement, the Financial Times, citing four sources familiar with the decision-making process, reported that the Chinese side had "treated them" and that their plans to visit China were suspended. It is said that the Chinese side offered to meet with Vice Minister Xe Feng, who is ranked fifth in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but Sherman reversed the offer to meet with his counterpart, Vice Minister Le Yucheng, which was rejected by China. This shows that the tension between the US and China has been fierce over the course of Deputy Secretary Sherman.
Of course, it is difficult to say that the meeting between the two sides has yet to be completely broken. According to Reuters, a senior US official said the US and China were discussing the issue of Sherman's visit to China. He also said that if the visit to China is made, it will be at the end of the tour in Asia, and cooperation with China is necessary in the North Korean issue as well. Hong Kong's South China Morning Post also reported that while the US and China are battling over the details of the protocol and are not ready to make an official announcement yet, China is still preparing to welcome Deputy Secretary Sherman in Tianjin later this month. . As Deputy Secretary Sherman is discussing the details of the meeting on who to contact, he said that the meeting will proceed once the talks are completed. A diplomatic source also said, "China was only missing from the announcement of the countries it visited, and I know the possibility that the US and China will actually meet is very high." "If we wait a little longer, the results will come."