US President Joe Biden has tried to reassure the leaders of Japan and South Korea as the allies met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru.
Joe Biden sought to use the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru to shore up relations with key allies before Donald Trump reenters the White House in January.
"We have now reached a moment of significant political change," Biden said as he met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the sidelines of the summit in the Peruvian capital, Lima, on Friday, reports DW.
"This is likely to be my last trilateral meeting with this important group, but I am proud to have helped be one of the parts of building this partnership," he added.
But Biden insisted that his internationalist approach would survive. He said of the Japan-South Korea alliance: "I think it's built to last. That's my hope and expectation."
Biden praises cooperation with Seoul, Tokyo
At the start of the meeting, Biden praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the United States in countering what he called North Korea's "dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia."
The talks come as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to regain land in the Kursk border region that Ukrainian troops seized earlier this year.
"As we can see from the recent deployment of DPRK troops to Russia, the challenging security environment within and outside the region once again reminds us the importance of our trilateral cooperation," Yoon said, using the acronym for North Korea's formal name.
Ishiba also stressed the importance of the three nations acting as a bulwark against Pyongyang. "I look forward to furthering our partnership in response against North Korea and in many other areas," he added.
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
