Joe Biden booked some impressive gains in his bid to bind Asian partners into his regional agenda. But many of the initiatives build only modestly on past practices.
For former US officials who recall years of gruelling diplomacy when Seoul and Tokyo were scarcely on speaking terms,US President Joe Biden had managed to bring together Fumio Kishida of Japan and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol in one place, seemingly as allies. But whether the summit will prove as “historic” as the leaders claimed is open to question.
“The idea that Camp David was the moment Japan and South Korea moved past their historical issues is a dangerous illusion,” said Daniel Sneider, a lecturer in East Asian studies at Stanford University.For decades, relations between the two countries have been dogged by controversies relating to Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula in the first half of the 20th century.
Moon Jae-in, Yoon’s left-wing predecessor, promised not to intervene in the court cases, limiting diplomatic routes for resolving the dispute, while Tokyo insisted all claims related to its colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula were resolved by a 1965 treaty.
Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, whom Yoon defeated by a margin of less than 1 per cent in last year’s election, has described Yoon’s meeting with Kishida in March as “the most shameful and disastrous moment in our country’s diplomatic history”.
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