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South Korea accepts Trump’s G7 plan as it grapples with how to balance US, China
- Moon accepted the invite during a phone call with Trump but escalating US-China tensions threaten to leave Seoul caught between its security ally and largest trading partner
- US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Seoul and Washington could be ‘good partners’ in pushing back against China’s military advances
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in has accepted a US proposal to join the Group of Seven summit amid escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing which threaten to leave Seoul caught between its security ally and largest trading partner.
Moon accepted the invitation during a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Monday, South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement, following an initially cautious response by his administration that said officials not received prior notice and would discuss the idea with their American counterparts.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said the United States and South Korea could be “good partners” in pushing back against China’s “military advances,” along with Australia, Japan, India, Brazil and Europe.
South Korea, Japan and Australia have long-standing treaty alliances with the US, while India is officially non-aligned. Trump declared Brazil a “major Non-Nato ally” last year under an agreement that eased restrictions on military sales to the South American country.
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“We can be good partners alongside them and ensure that the next century remains a Western one modelled on the freedoms that we have here in the United States,” Pompeo said in an interview with Fox News.
Pompeo’s remarks came after Trump on Saturday flagged plans to invite South Korea, Australia, India and Russia to an expanded G10 or G11 summit that could discuss the future of China.
South Korea will try to hedge between the US and China as much as possible, yet Beijing and Washington could interpret such moves as ambiguous, leading to greater pressure on Seoul to take a clearer position
Trump, who has delayed this year’s summit until at least September amid the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus, said the current grouping of the US, the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Canada and Japan was “very outdated”.
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