In shadow of new Trump term, Japan and S.Korea join US in Asian naval drill

By Tim Kelly

U.S., Japanese and South Korean naval forces exercised together in East Asian waters on Thursday in their most complex and final joint drills before President Joe Biden hands over one of his signature national security initiatives to Donald Trump.

Led by the USS George Washington carrier and its jet fighters, the Freedom Edge naval exercise in waters south of the Korean peninsula and west of Japan's main islands comes after a pact brokered by Biden in 2023 in which Seoul and Tokyo put aside years of mutual animosity and agreed to trilateral security cooperation with Washington.

Further exercises are planned next year, although neither Trump or his pick for Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and China hawk, have yet to outline their national security plans in the sensitive East Asia region on Beijing's doorstep. Biden, who leaves the White House in January, also pushed to extend the three-way cooperation to technology, supply chain security and cyber defences.

"If trilateralism gets touted as a Biden achievement, I could imagine a scenario where Trump may therefore choose to ignore it," said Jeffrey Hornung, an expert in Japanese security policy at the Rand Corporation. "The value of trilateralism will need to be sold to him, not just grandfathered in," he added.

Trump's allies in June assured officials in Japan and South Korea that he would support deeper three-way ties, sources earlier told Reuters. In his first term Trump pressured Tokyo and Seoul to pay more for the U.S. forces they host, which in Japan include amphibious units and naval warships that Washington could deploy to defend neighbouring Taiwan from any attack from China.

In the latest meeting between senior officials from the three countries, their national security advisers, Jake Sullivan of the U.S., Shin Won-sik of South Korea and Takeo Akiba of Japan, expressed concern over deepening cooperation between Russia and North Korea, including troop deployments against Ukrainian forces by Pyongyang.

With Biden's departure, only South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol will remain of the three leaders who agreed at a Camp David gathering in 2023 on closer cooperation in response to rising tensions in East Asia with China, Russia and North Korea.

The then Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida stepped down in September amid public anger about a funding scandal embroiling his government.

Visiting the carrier on Thursday, U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said the three-way pact and the resulting military cooperation sent a strong message to Beijing.

"Not only is our deterrence stronger, and not only are we witnessing how strong that deterrence is, the good news, is so is China," he said on the carrier. Emanuel, who may depart Japan before the end of the year, will be replaced by an envoy nominated by Trump.

Japanese Rear Admiral Takashi Matsui and South Korean Rear Admiral Hur Sung-jae, who commanded their countries' forces in the naval exercise, stood beside him in the ship's hangar deck surrounded by F-18 and F-35 fighter jets.

For Seoul, said Hur, the exercise, which came after North Korea last month tested what it claims was an upgraded intercontinental ballistic missile, sent a message to its belligerent neighbour.

"It has a characteristic of responding to and deterring North Korean provocations," he said.