Joint commitment and technological and manufacturing agreements to solve the semiconductor crisis, which engulfs the global and US supply chain in crucial sectors such as the automotive sector. And to respond to the continuing pandemic crisis: the lack of sufficient vaccines in many countries.
Joe Biden has laid down a new piece of his multilateral and allied foreign policy with the summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. It was the second summit with an Asian leader, following the envoy in January by Japanese leader Yoshihide Suga. It is no coincidence that Moon and Suga also became the first foreign leaders to be received by the White House: Biden has made clear a pivot towards Asia as a region of priority strategic importance for Washington today.
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Diplomacy towards North Korea
And the burning geopolitical issues were not lacking. Above all, the redefinition of diplomacy towards North Korea. Biden appointed a new special envoy for Pyongyang, veteran ambassador Sung Kim, and outlined a path of “pragmatic steps” that would keep faith with the goal of the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It is a formula halfway between Barack Obama’s “strategic patience” – sanctions and isolation of the Kim Jong-un regime – and Donald Trump’s broken openings. Concern for China’s ambitions is also in the background of the summit, with Biden hoping to enlist Seoul in a front better capable of containing Beijing.
But the two emergencies in the limelight – the economic one on chips and the health one on vaccines – have held their ground and promised closer results. Biden has announced that he will donate doses to vaccinate the 550,000 South Korean soldiers who work closely with US troops stationed in the country against Covid-19. Partnerships have also been launched, on which no details have been offered, to churn out greater quantities of vaccines on a global scale.
Production and delivery of vaccines
“With our advanced capabilities, we have an obligation to do everything possible to protect the whole world,” Biden said alongside Moon. And he specified that another billion doses could be ready for worldwide use between the second half of the year and the beginning of 2022. Moon, particularly sensitive to the drama with only 3% of the South Korean population vaccinated, has for his part described a closer cooperation both in the production of doses and in the basic components for vaccines.