US vice president slams Trump for 'denigrating' allies: Yonhap

By Park Sae-jin Posted : June 21, 2016, 08:35 Updated : June 21, 2016, 08:35

[AP/Yonhap News Photo ]


US Vice President Joe Biden said 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 US 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 serious and tragic mistake."

Calling Asia "the world's most consequential region," Biden maintained that the US 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 US 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 US 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 US 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.

(Yonhap)
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