Blinken talks to Japanese, South Korean counterparts ahead of China trip
The conversations also come as North Korea stepped up missile launches in the past year, and Tokyo contends with growing pressure from Chinese vessels around islands contested with Beijing.
US Secretary Blinken's visit to China on June 18 and 19 will mark the first trip by a top US diplomat in nearly five years. / Photo: AP Archive
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on separate calls, emphasizing the importance of "sustained... trilateral cooperation" ahead of his visit to China.
Blinken on Friday reassured Foreign Minister Park Jin of the US' "ironclad commitment" to South Korea's defence, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement on Saturday.
"The Secretary and the Foreign Minister condemned the DPRK's continued unlawful ballistic missile launches and noted the need for the PRC to use its influence to encourage Pyongyang to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy," he added, using acronyms for North Korea and China's official names.
Blinken repeated the "ironclad commitment" to defence and condemnations of China's missile launches to Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa.
Last year, Tokyo unveiled a major defence overhaul, pledging to boost security spending to two percent of GDP by 2027 and calling China the "greatest strategic challenge ever" for Japan.
Growing thaw between Tokyo, Pyongyang
The three countries issued a joint statement on Thursday to "condemn" North Korea's launch of two short-range ballistic missiles, shortly after Pyongyang warned of an "inevitable" response to ongoing US-South Korea joint military drills.
The trilateral statement reflected the growing thaw between Japan and South Korea –– a major foreign policy goal of US President Joe Biden's administration amid tensions in the region and China's growing influence.
Blinken also told South Korea's Park, though not Japan's Hayashi, of the US pledge to "responsibly manage the US-PRC relationship" ahead of his visit to China on June 18 and 19.
His visit, the first trip by a top US diplomat to China in nearly five years, was rescheduled after a planned trip to Beijing in February was cancelled when Washington said it detected –– and later shot down –– a Chinese spy balloon.
President Biden told reporters on Saturday morning that he also hoped to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping "over the next several months" to talk about "legitimate differences we have but also how... to get along."
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