Senior US diplomat hails joint fact sheet release as opening ‘new chapter’ in South Korea-US alliance
Washington, Nov 15 (IANS) US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said that South Korea and the United States have opened a “new chapter” in their alliance with the release of a joint fact sheet on bilateral security and trade agreements.
On Thursday (Washington time), the two countries released the document outlining the outcomes of the two summits that President Lee Jae Myung and US President Donald Trump held at the White House in August and in Korea’s southeastern city of Gyeongju last month ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Yonhap news agency reported.
“Just recently, yesterday, our two countries released a historic joint fact sheet on President Trump’s historic state visit to Korea at the end of October, inaugurating a new chapter in the US-Korea alliance,” Landau said during a forum co-hosted by the Atlantic Council and the Korea Society.
“I encourage all of you to read that fact sheet closely, because it lays out our joint priorities for the relationship in the years to come,” he added.
The senior diplomat said that the priorities include rebuilding and expanding critical industries, maintaining foreign exchange market stability, enhancing commercial ties, promoting reciprocal trade, modernizing the bilateral alliance and furthering the two countries’ maritime and nuclear partnerships.
Noting that the two in-person summit meetings have taken place, Landau said that Trump has a “great” relationship with Lee.
He also stressed that during Trump’s state visit to Korea last month, he secured “billions of dollars for the American economy in “landmark” deals.
“These efforts recognize Korea as one of the leading investors in the United States, and will support American jobs, fuel America’s energy exports, promote trusted technology and strengthen our maritime partnership,” he said.
Noting the Trump administration’s drive to revitalize American manufacturing, Landau said that South Korea is “absolutely vital to this effort.”
“We need Korea’s investment in key sectors, including shipbuilding, energy, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, critical minerals and AI Quantum,” he said.
“We also need Korea’s help in getting those investments up and running, sending experts on temporary visas who can teach our great American workers how to run these precision manufacturing facilities,” he added.
Landau described the immigration crackdown on Korean workers at a Korean battery factory construction site in Georgia in September as a “regrettable incident,” while touching on his trip to Seoul in the same month, during which he said he pledged to fix the US visa system to prevent the incident from happening again.
“President Trump has been very, very clear. He welcomes Koreans to come to our country to train American workers in these high-precision jobs,” he said. “Obviously, you cannot ask for countries to make significant investments in our economy and not expect them to send people over to implement those investments and make them a reality.”
He underscored that there have been “very quick strides” toward preventing a repeat of the September incident by establishing a special desk at the US Embassy in Seoul and working on creating a visa category to allow people to come and train American workers in line with US immigration laws.
–IANS
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