President Biden is employing some personal diplomacy this week as he intensifies his efforts to build a network of defense alliances in East Asia to challenge China’s growing influence and power.
This week that goal hits a crucial milestone. Mr. Biden on Wednesday showcased deepening ties with Japan by hosting Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for an official state visit. On Thursday, Mr. Biden and Mr. Kishida will meet with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., whose own country has clashed with China repeatedly in recent months over conflicting sovereignty claims in the South China Sea.
Mr. Kishida’s trip is the fifth official state visit of the Biden presidency and the fourth honoring a key Indo-Pacific ally, following previous visits honoring the leaders of Australia, India and South Korea. The trilateral summit on Thursday is an unprecedented move to discuss advancing joint cooperation on security and defense alliances and bolster the Pentagon’s options in defending Taiwan.
Thursday’s meeting is perhaps Mr. Biden’s most aggressive effort so far to rally Indo-Pacific allies, in the absence of an Asian version of NATO, to reverse China’s attempts to establish itself as the dominant maritime power in the region.
The three-sided diplomacy won’t result in a full-fledged military alliance, but it will likely feature stronger cooperation on maritime security, military exercises and information sharing, among other items. Talks with Mr. Kishida on Wednesday appeared to result in some steps to bolster the defense partnerships between the two nations.
The two leaders agreed to modernize their militaries’ command-and-control structures into what Mr. Biden called the “most significant” upgrade to their alliance since the mutual defense treaty decades ago.
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“Over the last three years, the partnership between Japan and the United States has been transformed into a truly global partnership,” he said, standing alongside Mr. Kishida in the White House Rose Garden press conference.
The two allies are establishing a military-industrial council to determine how Japan and the U.S. can produce defense weapons to improve cooperation and anti-missile defenses along with Australia.
About 54,000 U.S. troops are in Japan, but under the old system, major decisions have been made in coordination with the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command thousands of miles away in Hawaii. The new structure has Japan with a joint operational command for self-defense.
During the news conference, Mr. Kishida said Japan will continue to call on China to “fulfill its responsibilities as a major power,” while working to build a “constructive and stable” relationship with Beijing’s Communist regime.
“We agreed that our two countries will continue to respond to challenges concerning China,” he said. “And we confirmed that unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force by coercion is absolutely unacceptable where it may be.”
Fortifying the front
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Mr. Biden sees Japan as a cornerstone of his Indo-Pacific strategy and Mr. Kishida appears happy to go along with the plan. He has committed to increasing his country’s defense spending by 2% of its GDP by 2037 and purchasing American-made Tomahawk missiles to bolster Japan’s long-range “counterstrike” capabilities.
The Philippines is also seen as a key to fortifying the front line in an increasingly tumultuous region. Beijing has lodged extensive sovereignty claims over the South China Sea, one of the world’s major shipping lanes, inflaming tensions with the Philippines and other countries in the region such as Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Last week six warships and four aircraft from Australia, Japan, the Philippines and the U.S. conducted a joint patrol in the South China Sea, where Beijing has harassed the Philippine Navy resupply missions to a disputed outpost. Manila pitched the idea of joint patrols with allies as a show of deterrence against China.
Ahead of his departure for Washington, Mr. Marcos said there would be an agreement on the South China Sea issues, but the talks would largely focus on improving economic ties with the U.S. and Japan.
“The main intent of this trilateral agreement is for us to be able to continue to flourish, to be able to help one another, and of course to keep the peace in the South China Sea and the freedom of navigation,” he said.
As the water run-ins with China have escalated, Mr. Marcos has worked to deepen his military ties with the U.S. and Japan. He has doubled the number of Philippine bases American soldiers can access under a defense cooperation treaty and has initiated talks with Tokyo for an access agreement that would allow Japanese forces to deploy on Philippine soil as well.
Under former President Rodrigo Duterte, who left office in 2022, Manila tilted strongly toward Beijing in hopes of halting its expansion desires. Mr. Marcos has taken a sharply different tack.
An Asian NATO
Coalition-building has become key to Mr. Biden’s China containment strategy because of the lack of a formal security coalition in the region that would mirror NATO in Europe.
Since taking office, he has worked to strengthen the Quad partnership which unites the U.S., Japan, India and Australia. He also formed the AUKUS defense partnership with Australia and Britain, and promoted the trilateral relationship between the U.S., Japan and South Korea, which culminated in a historic Camp David summit.
Smaller countries worried about China’s military and economic aggression have also suggested an interest in working in a U.S. coalition. Vietnam last year upgraded its ties with the U.S. to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” which puts Washington among its highest tier of allies.
It is unclear whether former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, would keep those alliances going should he beat Mr. Biden in November.
Mr. Trump has suggested an increasingly hawkish tone toward China, at least economically. Earlier this year, he said he might impose a 60% tariff on Chinese goods if elected, but he also questioned the value of U.S. troops deployments in South Korea and Japan and pressed both allies to pay more for the security American forces provided.
During his administration, Mr. Trump began imposing tariffs on China aimed at curbing the import of Chinese goods in 2018. Mr. Biden has largely kept those tariffs in place, but in recent months has tried to tone down the angry rhetoric and increase official contacts with China.
Mr. Kishida last week dismissed the notion that a leadership change in Washington could reshape the alliances.
“Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming presidential election in the United States, because of this more complicated international situation, the Japan-U.S. alliance grows in importance even more,” he said in an interview with PBS last week. “And I believe this is a notion shared as a common recognition within the U.S., going beyond party lines, in a bipartisan way.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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