2024-03-03 06:56:04
The Republic of Korea and the United States plan to begin negotiations in the near future on concluding a new agreement on the distribution of costs for the maintenance of the American military contingent in the south of the Korean Peninsula. This was reported by the Yonhap agency with reference to a high-ranking official, Day.Az reports with reference to TASS.
In January, the agency, citing sources, reported that the parties could begin negotiations much earlier, including due to the assumption that Donald Trump could again win the US presidential election. During his tenure, he demanded that the American allies increase their share of joint defense costs.
“It usually takes more than a year to complete negotiations, so it is natural that we need to start moving this year. The US and South Korea will soon start talking about this. South Korea and the US will discuss the issue of distribution of defense spending in the near future,” the South Korean diplomat said .
On February 28, negotiations between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea Cho Tae-yeol and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken took place in Washington. The parties agreed to “react strictly to provocations” from the DPRK. “We continue to support Ukraine together, we condemn the Houthi attacks together and work to ensure freedom of navigation,” Cho Tae-yeol said. He called strengthening trilateral cooperation between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo necessary to solve “common security problems.”
An American military contingent of 28.5 thousand people is stationed in the south of the Korean Peninsula. The current cost-sharing agreement between the United States and South Korea runs until the end of 2025. During previous negotiations in 2021, according to some reports, the then-US Trump administration demanded a fivefold increase in funding from Seoul. As a result, the Republic of Korea agreed to increase its cost share by 13.9%. Trump’s possible re-election raises concerns that negotiations on a new agreement could become difficult, Yonhap reported earlier.