Biden focuses on technology gaps and security during his first trip to Asia as president

Judy Woodruff:

For more on Biden’s initial trip to Asia as president, we get two views.

Frank Jannuzi is president of the Mansfield Basis, which seeks to promote U.S. relations with Asia. He also labored at the State Office and as a staffer for then-Senator Joe Biden. And Bonnie Glaser is the director of the Asia method at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Hello to the two of you. Welcome again to the system.

Frank Jannuzi, permit me begin with you.

At this second — what is it about this moment that you imagine has led President Biden to go to Asia?

Frank Jannuzi, President and CEO, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Basis: Many thanks for the question, Judy.

Deep in Biden’s DNA about U.S.-Asia relations are the words of Mike Mansfield, who taught Biden that the most vital bilateral marriage in the planet for the United States, bar none, was the U.S.-Japan alliance.

So, I feel, at the core, you have Biden making an attempt to reassure allies in South Korea, Japan and across the Indo-Pacific that the U.S.’ credible nuclear deterrence stays strong in the deal with of North Korea’s continued nuclear tests and missile enhancement, that the U.S. motivation to Asia will not be in any way diminished by the conflict beneath way in Europe, exactly where the U.S. and NATO allies are responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So, safety prospects here. And Biden’s Asia DNA, if you will, inherited from Mansfield, has brought him to this location before touring even to Kyiv.