South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk Yeol wants to take part in a new US economic initiative in the Indo-Pacific. It should become a new model – in the fight against China.
South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk Yeol receives US President Joe Biden.
American President Joe Biden is reaping the first successes in his new Asia strategy in South Korea. On the first leg of Biden’s tour of the continent, his host, South Korea’s newly elected President Yoon Suk Yeol, explained that his country is not only strengthening the security alliance with the US, but also adheres to Biden’s “economic framework for the Indo-Pacific” (IPEF for short). want to participate.
This “Indo-Pacific Economic Framework” is a key element in Biden’s global strategy to counter China’s influence in Asia and increase his country’s economic security. According to the US government, there will be substantial cooperation on supply chains for semiconductors and other important products, rules for the digital economy, the promotion of renewable energies and significant investments in infrastructure in Asia. Biden wants to present the details of the Ipef on Monday in Japan, his second leg of the journey.
Yoon made it clear that South Korea’s entry into the initiative is about security policy. Today we live in an age where economic security is also national security, President Yoon said. “The shift in the international trade order and the disruption in global supply chains are having a direct impact on the livelihoods of our citizens.”
By participating in the initiative, conservative Yoon is deviating from the course of his left-wing predecessor, Moon Jae In. He had tried to stay in the background in the conflict between the US ally and South Korea’s largest trading partner, China. So he wanted to improve the relationship with the neighbor.
The conservative Yoon now wants to position himself clearly on the side of the USA and stand up for democratic values and rule-based trade more regionally and globally. Both terms mean a stronger confrontation of China. Both sides underlined how important the joint development of supply chains is to them.
Immediately after his arrival on Friday, Biden visited a Samsung chip factory. The group is investing 17 billion dollars in a plant in the USA. And that’s just part of a big offensive. South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor announced on Saturday that it would build a $5.4 billion battery plant in the United States.
How Biden’s Indo-Pacific Initiative Challenges China
Participating in Biden’s initiative is a foreign policy risky step, says Korean foreign policy expert Lee Shin Wha, a professor at Korea University in Seoul. “We have to worry about a backlash from China.”
South Korea’s largest trading partner had already punished its small neighbor economically when the South stationed the American Thaad missile defense system as protection against North Korea. For the Lee, the strategic importance of South Korea’s participation in IPEF goes beyond the missile defense system. “It carries great weight as it broadens the alliance from its focus on security to a comprehensive alliance that also includes business and technology.”
Indeed, the Ipef aims to fill the vacuum created by Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, by withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017 with a new US-centric economic web. Originally, the USA had pushed the TPP in order to flank the military balance of power with China in Asia with an economic counter-power.
The government at the time wanted to compensate for countries in the region of China’s economic attractiveness by simplifying market access to the USA. However, Trump saw this as a major disadvantage for the United States. The other participants nevertheless implemented the agreement without the USA.
For Asia, the ipef is only plan B
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s security adviser, made it clear that the Ipef is not a new version of the TPP, but a new instrument of power. “I think this will be the new model of economic agreement that will set the terms and rules for trade, technology and supply chains for the 21st century,” Sullivan said in Seoul. “And we are planting our claim in the ground that we want to be the focus of the framework.”
South Korea’s participation in Ipef, however, cannot hide a fundamental disappointment among America’s friends in the region, most notably Japan: Japan still wants the US to return to the TPP, said Noriyuki Shikata, spokesman for the Japanese government on Friday. But as Plan B, the new agreement also makes sense for Tokyo. “We hope that IPEF will lead to a more proactive engagement by the United States in the economic order of the Indo-Pacific,” Shikata said.