Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin head to Asia before US-China meeting in Alaska

Threats from China and North Korea will loom large over the Biden administration’s first cabinet-level trip abroad, part of a larger effort to bolster US influence and calm concerns about America’s role in Asia.

A senior administration official said Saturday that US officials have tried to reach out to North Korea through multiple channels since last month, but have yet to receive a response. That makes consultations with the reclusive country’s neighbours, Japan, South Korea and China, all the more critical.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Japan and South Korea for four days of talks starting on Monday as the new administration tries to shore up partnerships with the two key regional allies. Blinken and Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will meet Chinese officials in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday.

The trip is intended to restore what Biden hopes will be a calming and even-keeled approach to ties with Tokyo and Seoul after four years of transactional and often temperamental relations under Donald Trump. He had upended diplomatic norms by meeting not once, but three times, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Blinken and Austin also plan virtual meetings with journalists, civil-society members and others. After reassuring their counterparts of US commitments to Japanese and South Korean security, they plan to focus on an increasingly assertive China, the nuclear challenge from North Korea and the coronavirus pandemic.