The United States and South Korea have reaffirmed their commitment to work together in maintaining stability in the Taiwan Strait, as cross-strait tensions show signs of escalation in light of the upcoming presidential election in the self-governing island on Saturday.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and his new South Korean counterpart Cho Tae-yul had a call Thursday and agreed to address global challenges including the Taiwan matter, according to a State Department statement released later in the day.
Blinken and Cho agreed to cooperate in supporting “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea,” the State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in the statement.
Blinken and the new South Korean foreign minister Cho, who will officially be sworn in on Friday, also emphasized that their partnership was now a global alliance that carries “vital importance” in promoting “peace, security, and prosperity around the world,” the statement read.
Expanding the operational theater of the U.S.-South Korea alliance “around the world” implies that South Korean forces are to be engaged in matters beyond the Korean peninsula, a step that Seoul has long been cautious about due to threats from North Korea.
However, the use of this term has become more frequent since the tenure of former President Moon Jae-in, and further articulated under the current President Yoon Suk Yeol who places a stronger emphasis on its partnership with Washington.
This shift was notably marked in November when the defense ministers of both nations agreed to evolve their military alliance into a global partnership, an expansion aimed at addressing not just threats from North Korea but also broader challenges that affect regional and global peace.
The latest statement from Washington and Seoul came days before Taiwan’s Presidential election on Saturday. The results of this election could influence Taiwan’s future interactions with the U.S. and China, potentially impacting regional security and political dynamics.
Over the past eight years, while Taiwan has been governed by the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Beijing has notably escalated its military posturing against Taipei, marked by increased military exercises in the Taiwan Strait.
With the DPP candidate Lai Ching-te leading in major polls, concerns over the possibility of military conflict are growing, fuelled by Beijing’s consistent stance that it does not rule out the use of force to achieve reunification.
Maintaining peace in Taiwan has become a critical issue for South Korea.
In the event of a war between China and Taiwan, South Korea’s GDP is expected to suffer the second largest decline following Taiwan, according to a Bloomberg Economics calculation released Tuesday. South Korea’s GDP is projected to decrease by 23.3%, following Taiwan, which could see a reduction of 40%.
The economic damage to South Korea is greater than that projected for China, a primary participant in the conflict, where the economic damage is estimated to be a GDP shrink of 16.7%.
With the economic projection indicating severe damage to South Korea’s economy, Seoul has recently become more outspoken on the Taiwan issue.
South Korea – along with the U.S. and Japan – convened its first trilateral Indo-Pacific dialogue in Washington last week, and released a joint statement defending freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific. The three “opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion anywhere in the waters of the Indo-Pacific,” the statement said.
The three “reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community,” it added.
On Monday, China’s foreign ministry strongly criticized the joint statement, labeling it interference in Beijing’s internal affairs.
Yoon in April also made comments about Taiwan in an interview with Reuters, saying that the situation in the Taiwan Strait was now a “global issue.”
Edited by Taejun Kang and Elaine Chan.