In August, the leaders of the United States, South Korea and Japan met at Camp David for their first trilateral summit. The resulting agreement to deepen military and intelligence cooperation has steered Northeast Asian geopolitics into uncharted territory.
In view of the rising threat from North Korea, deteriorating ties with China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has pursued a bold and systematic regional strategy. Multilateral coalitions like this one, the reinvigorated "Quad" (Australia, India, Japan and the U.S.), and the relatively new AUKUS arrangement (comprising Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States) augment the traditional hub-and-spoke model of security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, with the U.S. at the center of each.
From the U.S. perspective, the strained relationship between South Korea (The Republic of Korea) and Japan — America’s most important allies in East Asia — has long been a strategic obstacle. Since he was Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden has been eager to help the two countries — long at odds over historical disputes and territorial issues — mend fences.