Washington, March 14 (Yonhap) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to embark on a trip to Asia this Sunday to discuss the main challenges in the region, including North Korea and China, with two key US allies from Asia: South Korea and Japan.
—
The top US diplomat will visit Tokyo first, where he will be joined by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for a “two plus two” meeting with his Japanese counterparts.
—
Austin left on Saturday for a stopover in Hawaii before his trip to Japan.
—
Both Blinken and Austin will visit South Korea from Wednesday to talk with their counterparts in the Asian country, also including a “two plus two” meeting.
—
The State Department has said the secretaries will discuss a wide range of regional and global issues while visiting the two key US allies in Asia, including how to deal with North Korea.
—
The US is currently undergoing a comprehensive review of its North Korea policy that it says will create a new and different approach from the past.
—
A senior US diplomat said Blinken’s trip to Asia will provide an important opportunity for US allies to provide their views on US North Korea policy.
—
Sung Kim, the Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Affairs, previously said that when Blinken is in the region, he believes this will be another great opportunity for US allies to provide high-level input into their process, because they want to make sure to incorporate their input as they review all the important aspects of their North Korea policy.
—
Kim said the review will likely be completed in a few weeks.
—
The Joe Biden Administration has yet to publicly offer any direct messages to Pyongyang since taking office on January 20, but an earlier report said the new US Administration has made several behind-the-scenes attempts to reach Pyongyang, albeit without success.
—
A request to the State Department to confirm the report was not immediately returned.
—
The State Department said the US secretaries will also discuss how to jointly deal with what it calls growing “competition” from China.
—
Blinken’s first trip abroad as secretary comes after President Biden organized the first summit of a regional forum known as the “Quad,” which under the former Donald Trump administration was largely viewed as a coalition of countries against China. which currently includes Australia, India and Japan.
—
The Biden Administration is looking to change the main focus of the grouping of any country or issue in an apparent hope of attracting more US allies and partners to the regional forum.
—
State Department spokesman Ned Price said about Blinken’s trip that a coordinated approach to China is one of the items that will be on the agenda of both countries.
—
Blinken will wrap up his visit to Seoul on Thursday to head to Alaska, where he and US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan will meet their Chinese counterparts.
—
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the US-China talks were specifically scheduled after the top US diplomat had the opportunity to coordinate US policy toward China with the two key US allies. . in Asia.
—
Psaki previously said that it was important to the US that this Administration’s first meeting with Chinese officials take place on US soil and after meeting and consulting closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe.
—
![[NO-MHSC] The context of the match seen by R. Courbis](https://www.allezpaillade.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Courbis.jpg "[NO-MHSC] The context of the match seen by R. Courbis")
