U.S. diplomacy in Asia will be among the top foreign policy projects of President-elect Joe Biden’s team when they settle into the White House on Jan. 20, with the former vice president deputizing his incoming secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and national security adviser pick, Jake Sullivan, to right the ship in the region.
Blinken, a veteran diplomat and former point man on promoting trilateralism between Washington and its allies in Seoul and Tokyo, is widely expected to devote significant attention to the South Korea-Japan relationship, among other things, after the two neighbors saw bilateral ties deteriorate over history and trade issues during the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
A former top national security adviser to Biden, Blinken, 58, is so close to the president-elect that he has been described as his “alter ego,” a signal that he will have the ear of the incoming president — and all of the sway that comes with that.