Biden praises Japan, South Korea alliance as tensions mount with China

US President Joe Biden and the leaders of Japan and South Korea have said they saw a "new chapter" of close three-way security cooperation as the Asian allies joined a first-of-a-kind summit that has already rattled China.

Going tieless at the bucolic Camp David presidential retreat, Biden praised the "political courage" of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday in turning the page on historical animosity.

"Your leadership, with the full support of the United States, has brought us here because each of you understands that our world stands at an inflection point," Biden told a joint news conference in the wooded hills outside Washington.

Biden insisted the summit was not about China, which has been flexing its muscle both at home and in Asia under President Xi Jinping, including with major exercises around Taiwan.

But in a joint statement, the three leaders said they opposed the "dangerous and aggressive behaviour" of China in maritime disputes in the East and South China Sea.

"We strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific," it said.

The two US allies largely see eye to eye on the world – and together are the base for some 84,500 US troops – but such a summit would have been unthinkable until recently due to the legacy of Japan's harsh 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

But Yoon, taking political risks at home, has turned the page by resolving a dispute over wartime forced labour, and is now calling Japan a partner at a time of high tensions with both China and North Korea.

Yoon said he hoped to be "forward-looking" and called the summit a "historic day" in bringing a "firm institutional basis" to the three nations' joint relationship.

The three leaders also agreed to a multi-year plan of regular exercises in all domains, going beyond one-off drills in response to North Korea, and made a formal "commitment to consult" during crises, with Biden saying they would open a hotline.

The leaders also agreed to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year.

Biden still expects to meet Xi

Despite taking a series of shots at his Chinese counterpart, Biden said he still expects to meet China’s Xi Jinping later this year.

Biden held his first meeting as president with Xi in November 2022 in Bali, where they agreed to work to manage high tensions between the world's two largest economies.

Biden, answering a shouted question after meeting the leaders of Japan and South Korea, said, "I expect and hope to follow up on our conversation in Bali this fall, that's my expectation."

Biden is inviting Xi in November to San Francisco when the United States holds a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which includes China.

The two leaders could also meet next month in New Delhi on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 major economies.

Biden, promoting the health of the US economy as he enters election season, earlier this month said that China was a "ticking time bomb" due to economic problems.

In June, Biden called Xi a "dictator," comments denounced by China which came on the heels of a visit to Beijing by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the top-ranking US official to go to China in nearly five years.

'You can never become a Westerner'

Even if Biden said the summit did not target China, Rahm Emanuel, the blunt-speaking US ambassador to Japan, took another tone when he previewed the meeting, saying the three nations were defying China with the United States showing, "We are the rising power; they are declining."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged the two economically developed Northeast Asian democracies instead to work with Beijing to "revitalise East Asia."

"No matter how blond you dye your hair or how sharp you shape your nose, you can never become a European or American, you can never become a Westerner," he said in a video shared on official media.

"We must know where our roots lie," he said.

But China's tactics have led to a sharp deterioration in its favourability in Japan and South Korea, which have traditionally been more discreet than the United States in their comments.

Tensions have also risen with North Korea, which has launched a volley of missiles in recent months and is feared to respond to the summit with new action.

The leaders' joint statement renewed a call on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and urged all nations to enforce sanctions.

As the Camp David summit opened, North Korea said it had scrambled jets in response to what it called a US spy plane's incursion.