Choi Jong-geon, First Vice Foreign Minister, "China Will Be Highly Evaluated for Not Naming Specifics"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] Choi Jong-geon, First Vice Foreign Minister, stated on the 24th regarding the mention of the Taiwan issue in the Korea-US summit joint statement, “From China’s perspective, it will highly appreciate that the Republic of Korea did not explicitly mention China.”

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This was a direct rebuttal to concerns that it could provoke China and negatively affect China relations.

In an interview on TBS Radio’s ‘Kim Eo-jun’s News Factory’ on the same day, Vice Minister Choi said, “The joint statement of the US-Japan summit explicitly mentions China.”

The joint statement from the Korea-US summit held at the White House on the 21st (local time) included the phrase, “President Biden and President Moon emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” which raised speculation that it could provoke China, which regards discussions on Taiwan by other countries as interference in its internal affairs.

Vice Minister Choi explained, “The fact is that it is true that the Taiwan so-called cross-strait issue was included for the first time in a document produced by the Korea-US summit. However, the second fact is that China was not explicitly mentioned, and this is ultimately a general statement emphasizing the importance of peace and stability in the region.”

Regarding concerns that China might be uncomfortable with the lifting of missile guidelines between Korea and the US, which removed range restrictions on missiles developed by Korea, he said, “If they were uncomfortable, they should have been especially uncomfortable about missile development for a long time already,” and added, “We have never once considered China in this regard.”

On Korea-US vaccine cooperation, he described it as “a kind of vaccine alliance beyond the traditional security alliance,” and said, “It makes us think about what an alliance should be in the post-COVID era and the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution era.”

He then evaluated, “It was a very meaningful summit that showed that the Korea-US alliance should become an alliance that creates common good and public goods not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in this region and at the global level.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.