Outgoing US President Joe Biden warned on Friday of an era of “significant change” as he holds his final meeting with key allies at an Asia-Pacific summit taking place in the shadow of the return to power of Donald Trump.
“We have now reached a moment of significant political change,” Joe Biden said while meeting the leaders of Japan and South Korea in Lima, adding however that their tripartite alliance was “built to last”. Joe Biden said this was likely his last meeting with the trilateral group he highlights as a counterweight to China’s rise. The US president is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Saturday on the sidelines of the Apec summit. However, he added that this partnership was “designed to last. This is what I hope and what I expect.”
Joe Biden also warned of North Korea’s “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia” during this meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol. The talks in Lima come amid growing concern over Pyongyang’s military cooperation with Russia, particularly in Ukraine, and the nuclear-armed country’s missile tests.
Joe Biden, the Japanese Prime Minister and the South Korean President are to announce the creation of a secretariat to formalize the alliance launched last year, according to the White House. “We will work to ensure that we have institutionalized the trilateral alliance so that it becomes an enduring part of American policy,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters accompanying Joe Biden on Thursday in Peru. “We expect it to continue under the next administration, although of course they will make their own decisions,” he said.
Joe Biden’s trip to the Apec summit comes in the shadow of Republican Donald Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris in the November 5 presidential election. Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda threatens to disrupt America’s alliances, as it did during his first term.
North Korea could also seek to take advantage of the transfer of power to the United States in January, Jake Sullivan warned. “I don’t think we can count on a period of calm with North Korea,” he said. “So this is something that we are observing very carefully and that we will be observing every day between now and January 20” when Donald Trump takes office, he said. President Biden has been promoting the three-way alliance since hosting Yoon Suk Yeol and then-Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David in 2023.
