Vice President Kamala D. Harris met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in Friday before his meetings with President Biden at the White House.
“We are connected through our shared Democratic values,” Ms. Harris told Mr. Moon, adding that they would discuss the administration’s vision of a region “unconstrained by coercion.” It was an apparent reference to China’s influence.
The sequence of the vice president meeting with a visiting head of state before Mr. Biden followed the same pattern as the Japanese prime minister’s visit to Washington last month.
In an apparent dig at former President Donald Trump, Mr. Moon praised the Biden administration through an interpreter for “blazing a trail for inclusiveness and unity by restoring the soul of America.”
“Congratulations on how the Biden-Harris administration is ’building back better’ with the world’s most successful vaccine deployment and fastest economic recovery,” Mr. Moon said.
Ms. Harris said the U.S.-South Korea alliance is “critical to peace, security and prosperity in Northeast Asia, the Indo-Pacific and around the world.”
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“President Joe Biden and I are confident that together we can promote a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” she said.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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