WASHINGTON \u2014 President Joe Biden announced plans for annual leader-level meetings with Japan and South Korea as well as a new hot line for the allies to swiftly share intelligence at a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe met in this historic place to meet a historic moment,\u201d said Biden at a joint press conference Friday. \u201cAmerica\u2019s commitment to both countries is ironclad. And my personal commitment to bringing these three nations together was real from the very beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said the countries were also launching annual, multidomain military exercises that would take their trilateral defense cooperation to unprecedented levels. The allies will also increase information sharing on North Korean missile launches and cyber activities. <\/p>\n
But the push to strengthen the partnership between the three industrialized democracies comes as former President Donald Trump has emerged as the front-runner to challenge Biden, casting doubt on the long-term prospects of any unity efforts. Trump has vowed to undo many of Biden\u2019s policies if he is returned to the White House, and his administration was marked by unprecedented engagement with the leaders of North Korea and China. <\/p>\n
Recent polls have shown Biden and his predecessor virtually deadlocked in a hypothetical rematch of their bitterly contested 2020 contest. Asked if Trump would rip up the agreements if he wins the 2024 election, Biden sought to assure Japan and South Korea of the U.S. commitment to their defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not much, if anything, I agree on with my predecessor on foreign policy,\u201d Biden said. \u201cHis America First policy walking away from the rest of the world has made us weaker, not stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said the steps would help all three countries as they confront mutual threats, including Chinese aggression in the Asia-Pacific and North Korea\u2019s nuclear program. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes today different is it actually launches a series of initiatives that are actually institutional changes in how we deal with one another,\u201d he added. \u201cI think we\u2019re going to keep it going and I think we\u2019re going to benefit all of our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pressure on China<\/strong><\/p>\n The U.S.-China relationship is at a critical moment as the Biden administration seeks to ramp up its economic pressure on Beijing. Biden last week imposed curbs on U.S. investment in China in the semiconductor, quantum computing and artificial intelligence fields, part of a broad effort to restrict the country\u2019s ability to develop new military and surveillance technologies.<\/p>\n The administration has also sought to make the United States less dependent on Chinese supply chains, encouraging the domestic manufacture of semiconductors and clean-energy technology through tax breaks and subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act, two key pillars of the president\u2019s economic agenda of Bidenomics.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s actions come at a sensitive time for China and its president, Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n Recent economic data paints a troubling picture of the Chinese economy, with sales, industrial production, and real estate investment all missing expectations. The benchmark for stocks traded in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index, is down more than 12% since January while the nation\u2019s central bank has repeatedly cut key interest rates. That swoon has been driven by Country Garden Holdings Co., the real estate giant that has seen its market value collapse as it has posted billions of dollars of losses.<\/p>\n Biden has warned about the risks from China\u2019s economic problems and said its ailing post-pandemic economy could prompt leaders in Beijing to make dangerous choices. At a fundraiser last week, he described the nation as a \u201cticking time bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as Biden has sounded alarms about the state of the Chinese economy \u2014 and as flaps over former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s visit to Taiwan and Beijing\u2019s deployment of a spy balloon that flew over the continental U.S. have strained ties \u2014 the president has also sought to improve relations.<\/p>\n A series of top U.S. officials have visited Beijing in recent months, and Biden notably did little to promote the executive order last week placing curbs on U.S. investments. That could pave the way for a meeting between Biden and Xi this November at the APEC summit in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Biden said Friday he \u201cexpects and hopes\u201d to follow up with Xi. The two have not spoken since meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022.<\/p>\n The commitments announced Friday stop short of a NATO-style mutual defense agreement, but nonetheless demonstrate the rapidly thawing ties between Tokyo and Seoul. <\/p>\n Concerns over North Korea\u2019s growing missile arsenal and China\u2019s actions in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait have helped Japan and South Korea overcome decades of tensions stemming from the former\u2019s colonial rule of the latter in the early 20th century.<\/p>\n The U.S., Japan and South Korea are releasing a joint statement reaffirming their support for stability in the Taiwan Strait amid Chinese vows to change the self-governing island\u2019s status.<\/p>\n _____<\/p>\n (Bloomberg staff writer Hadriana Lowenkron contributed to this story.)<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n