WASHINGTON (AP) – The leaders of China, India, Japan and South Korea are among the heads of government converging on Washington for a summit on countering the nightmarish threat of nuclear terrorism. But with tensions in North Korea and the South China Sea running high, the meetings that Asian leaders have on the sidelines could attract more attention than the summit itself.
President Barack Obama has put a premium on expanding ties with Asia, in part to counter the rise of China. The U.S. has deepened ties with India, and strengthened long-standing alliances with Japan and South Korea while prodding these two core East Asian allies to overcome their historical differences. Despite the strategic rivalry, Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping have also striven to cooperate, which has yielded mixed results. Here’s a look at who will be meeting in Washington and the dynamics that will be in play:
JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA: RELUCTANT ALLIES
Obama will reprise a joint meeting he had with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye at the last nuclear security summit held in The Hague in 2014. That marked a concerted, but subtle U.S. push for Tokyo and Seoul to resolve the acrimony between them over Japan’s colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century and its military’s use of Asian sex slaves during World War II. In December, Japan and South Korea reached an agreement including an indirect apology from Abe and a Japanese pledge to provide 1 billion yen ($8 million) to a fund for the South Korean victims. That has calmed the tensions between the U.S. allies, but uncertainty remains over the implementation of the agreement.
One thing Japan and South Korea have rarely disagreed over is North Korea, whose missiles could target both countries. The White House says Obama, Abe and Park will on Thursday discuss responses to the North Korean threat after its recent nuclear test and space launch and security cooperation.