Biden’s Indo-Pacific trip starts in South Korea with China top of mind

President Joe Biden departed on his first trip to the Indo-Pacific region as President. Over the six-day trip, President Biden is set to meet newly elected South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. While in Japan, Biden will also meet with fellow leaders of the Indo-Pacific strategic alliance known as the Quad. The group includes Australia, India and Japan.

“President Biden has rallied the free world in defense of Ukraine and in opposition to Russian aggression,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s daily briefing Wednesday. “He also intends to seize this moment — this pivotal moment — to assert bold and confident American leadership in another vital region of the world: the Indo-Pacific.”

One of the topics expected to be at the top of Biden’s mind during his first Indo-Pacific trip as president is China. The war in Ukraine has created a sense of urgency about China among major U.S. allies in the area.

“The message we’re trying to send on this trip is a message of an affirmative vision of what the world can look like if the democracies and open societies of the world stand together to shape the rules of the road, to define the security architecture of the region, to reinforce strong, powerful, historic alliances,” Sullivan said. “We think that message will be heard everywhere. We think it will be heard in Beijing.”

North Korea is also expected to be a popular topic of conversation among Biden and the other Indo-Pacific leaders. North Korea has conducted several missile test launches in recent months. Sullivan said U.S. intelligence officials have determined there’s a “genuine possibility” that North Korea will conduct another test around the time of Biden’s visit to Asia.

“We are preparing for all contingencies, including the possibility that such a provocation would occur while we are in Korea or in Japan,” Sullivan said. “We are prepared, obviously, to make both short- and longer-term adjustments to our military posture as necessary to ensure that we are providing both defense and deterrence to our allies in the region and that we’re responding to any North Korean provocation.”