OAN’s Roy Francis
10:10 AM – Saturday, August 19, 2023
President Joe Biden held his first Camp David summit as tensions with China have risen to a new extreme.
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On Friday, President Biden held a conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David. The meeting unveiled several agreements which are aimed at strengthening the relationship between the three countries in response to the high tensions with China and North Korea.
“On this historic occasion,” a statement from the White House read. “We commit to expand our cooperation trilaterally and raise our shared ambition to a new horizon, across domains and across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.”
The three countries went on to announce that they will expand the cooperation between them by holding trilateral meetings between the leaders of nations, foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers at least once a year moving forward.
After the conference it was also announced that the three countries would hold annual military exercises together, along with sharing data on North Korea and China in order to be better prepared for any situation that might arise.
“We’ve all committed to swiftly consult with each other in response to threats to any one of our countries from whatever source it occurs,” Biden said. “That means we’ll have a hotline to share information and coordinate our responses whenever there is a crisis in the region or affecting any one of our countries.”
Biden said that the meeting is historic and that the agreements they had come to during the conference are moving the world towards a “safer” future.
“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together. And I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden said.
Biden also emphasized that the meeting was “not about China” but instead on bigger regional security issues. However, the leaders concluded that China is taking “dangerous and aggressive” action in the region and that they “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to the change the status quo in the water of the Indo-Pacific.”
The president concluded the new conference by saying that the world is at “an inflection point” and that they are answering the call to “lead in new ways.”
“Our world stands at an inflection point, a point where we’re called to lead in new ways, to work together, to stand together, and today, I’m proud to say our nations are answering that call,” the president said.
National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, said that the summit “marked a new era” of cooperation among the three nations which will work towards their joint interests for years to come. However, he explained that this agreement differs from NATO, and it should not be considered NATO for the pacific.
Meanwhile, China launched “joint air and sea patrols and military exercises of the navy and air force around the island of Taiwan” on Saturday, according to the People’s Liberation Army.
The exercises come after Taiwan’s vice president William Lai, who is the frontrunner to be Taiwan’s next president, visited the U.S. and made stops in New York and San Francisco. The visits were condemned by China.
After his visit, Lai stated that “Taiwan’s power is stronger and stronger.”
“Because of everyone’s hard work, Taiwan’s power is stronger and stronger, and it showed the international community that Taiwan is a force for good, that the international community really pays great attention to Taiwan,” he said in a news conference at Taiwan’s main international airport.
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