Diplomacy: Politics: News: Hankyoreh

A screen of a Japanese broadcast indicating that the US-Japan leaders had a telephone conference.

Among the proverbs that diplomats live with, there is a saying, “Diplomacy is protocol, protocol is order.” In the diplomatic arena where each country’s interests are sharply entangled, it means that one country cannot explicitly reveal its’understanding’ toward another country, which is the same sovereign state, so it indirectly reveals its meaning through a protocol. The United States, the world’s most powerful country, is no exception. Among the protocols, the most important protocol is the summit meeting. Since diplomacy is protocol and protocol is order, who the president of the United States calls first is an honest barometer of US diplomatic priorities. And this order has its own formula. First, neighboring countries, second, major alliances in Europe and Israel, and third, major allies in Asia. President Joe Biden, who took office on the 20th, is also observing this formula. On the third day of his inauguration, President Biden made normal conversations with neighboring Canada on the 22nd, with another neighboring Mexico facing the border on the 23rd, Britain, which is a’special alliance’, and France and Germany, major European allies on the 24th and 25th. . On the 26th, after passing through Russia, which had a major pending issue of extending the’New Strategic Arms Reduction Agreement’ (New Start), on the 27th, he exchanged phone calls with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, a major alliance in the Indo-Pacific region. This order will seldom change in the future.

The US-Japan alliance is the most important first alliance to protect peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, which is becoming increasingly important due to the US-China strategic competition. So, the US expresses the importance of the US-Japan alliance in terms of a cornerstone. Looking at the precedent of the last four US presidents, the new US president spoke with the Japanese prime minister before the Korean president. The order of the face-to-face summit was the same. The Japanese prime minister visited the United States for a summit meeting in February-March immediately after the new US president took office, but South Korea held the talks in May-June later than that. The only exception was President Kim Dae-jung in 2001. At that time, President Kim Dae-jung scheduled a summit meeting in early March to explain the advantages of the Sunshine Policy to the newly inaugurated President George W. Bush. However, the visit, which was made in a situation where the US policy toward North Korea was not sufficiently reviewed, ended in the worst diplomatic failure.

What about President Biden? With the successful response to Corona 19 and the like, Korea’s international status has risen sharply in recent years, and the prediction that President Biden will make a call with the leaders of Korea and Japan at least on the same day was mainly made. To the United States, Korea is an alliance that they shed their blood on, and a’exemplary student’ who has succeeded in catching both rabbits of democracy and economic growth. So, the United States uses the special term linchpin in the ROK-US alliance. Korea’s international status has recently increased, and it has grown into a major country in the’D-10′, a gathering of major democratic countries in the world. In fact, when President Biden was elected, he spoke on the same day (November 11, 2020) with the leaders of allies in the Indo-Pacific region such as Korea, Japan, and Australia. President Biden made a phone call with Japan, but why he hasn’t spoken with South Korea yet is the reason why there are voluminous voices. However, it is difficult to know the exact reason President Biden has not yet been contacted. It is interpreted that the US is expressing’unpleasantness’ about this because the summit between South Korea and China was made earlier on the 26th while the summit between Korea and the US was expected. That makes sense, but unless White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan writes a memoir, like his predecessor, John Bolton, exposing the inside of the House’s decision-making process, the exact truth will not be revealed. Interestingly, the Japanese media’s reaction to the news of the first telephone talks between the US and Japan. Japanese media reported on the 28th that President Biden was the first person in Asia to call Japan and sighed of relief. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said, “I returned to the residence of the House of Representatives in Akasaka, Tokyo, and then headed back to the Prime Minister’s co-authorship at night.” In fact, when confirming the sympathy of the Japanese Prime Minister on the 27th, Prime Minister Suga returned to the co-author at 11:47 that night and made a call at 0:47 on the 28th, an hour later. Even just before the currency was made, a high-ranking official of the Japanese government said, “I don’t know when the currency will be made.” It can be guessed that the U.S. has suddenly offered to talk on the phone’just right’. The reason why the United States committed a sort of “diplomatic rudeness” that calls out the top of another country in the middle of the night is the age of President Biden, aged 78 at the age of 78. Considering the time difference between the U.S. and Japan, President Biden chose 10 to 11 am, the most comfortable way to call. What time will the United States call the Blue House? Even tonight, if you suddenly call from the White House, President Moon may have to call in front of him like Prime Minister Suga, who had left work. The cold reality is that no other country in the world can refuse, saying, “It’s late at night,” when the president of the United States asks “Let’s call.” By Gil Yoon-hyung and Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter [email protected]