Biden: 'Denigrating' closest allies 'serious, tragic mistake'
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that "denigrating" America's closest allies is a "serious and tragic mistake" as he unleashed a scathing swipe at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Biden made his remarks in a security conference in Washington as concern has grown about the potential negative effects Trump could have on alliances if he is elected. The real-estate tycoon has expressed deeply negative views of alliances and U.S. security commitments overseas, seeing them as a cumbersome burden sucking up taxpayer dollars.
"The unrivaled network of alliances and partnerships that we have enables us to be an effective global leader," Biden said. "As we continue to urge our allies to do more, denigrating our closest partners as liabilities is a serous and tragic mistake."
Calling Asia "the world's most consequential region," Biden maintained that the U.S. is a "Pacific power."
"The next administration is going to inherit treaty alliances with Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and they're stronger than they've ever been," Biden said at the Center for a New American Security conference.
"Maintaining our alliances isn't always easy, to state the obvious, but the United States is wealthier and safer because the world's strongest democracies are on our corner. It's just common sense," he said.
Trump has long argued that the U.S. should no longer be the "policeman of the world," expressing deeply negative views of U.S. security commitments overseas and claiming it makes no sense for the U.S. to help defend such wealthy allies as Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in exchange for little.
He says allies should pay 100 percent of the cost of stationing American troops, or the U.S. should be prepared to end their protection. He even suggested allowing South Korea and Japan to develop their own nuclear weapons for self-defense so as to reduce U.S. security burdens.
About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter North Korean aggression, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Many agree that the troop presence is also in line with U.S. interests in a region marked by China's rise.
Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Ash Carter made similar remarks, emphasizing that U.S. allies around the world are a "critical ingredient to U.S. strength and leadership."
Carter said the U.S. military will continue to "defend our nation, underwrite global security, and uphold the principled order that has benefited our nation and so many others."
"Thankfully, we've never had to do so alone. That's because there is another critical ingredient to U.S. strength and leadership, and that is what I want to emphasize today: our unrivaled relationships with other countries -- a long-time network of allies and partners in every corner of the world," he said.
Carter also called the network of alliances an "important strategic asset."
"Our allies around the world have stood with us -- and fought with us -- time and again, most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan, and against ISIL. And we are just as committed to them. As history has shown, we have fought with our friends and allies -- and to defend the principles we share -- in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and in Europe," Carter said.
"Together, America's unrivaled military strength and that network of friends and allies -- also unrivaled -- have formed the bedrock of global security for decades. It reflects an important fact: the United States has all the friends around the world, and our antagonists have few or none. That's no accident," he added. (Yonhap)