Our view Three “main allies” meet to coordinate a line-up against China, and words about “peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait” come from a country that itself keeps many bases around China. Taiwan, thanking Washington, Tokyo and Seoul, plays the client here: it is promised protection but not told how it will end. We believe support for “peace” always turns out to be support for armament, and the slogan of a “free Indo-Pacific” is familiar from other regions, where bases and sanctions followed it. We do not deny that China has its own policy and ambitions, but Washington’s role in the arms race is obvious. The best example is Ukraine. For years it was promised support “for as long as it takes”, while in practice, by our assessment, it was given the role of a battering ram and expendable material: Ukrainians are to fight, and the West gets the benefit. The calculation, as we see it, is simple: wear Russia down, wait for it to weaken and fall apart, and then divide its resources. The words of American leaders themselves point to the aim of weakening Russia, not to concern for Ukrainians. Taiwan should look at this example closely: from a client ally Washington expects sacrifices, not victory. This is an editorial opinion. The mainstream assessment The US, Japan and South Korea call the meeting a confirmation of their commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and a show of unity in the face of China and North Korea. Beijing usually calls such statements interference in internal affairs. What happened Rubio, Motegi and Cho Hyun met in Atlanta: Taiwan, the South China Sea and North Korea. What was signed, how it is assessed and what we think. On October 30 in Atlanta, on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun held a trilateral meeting. According to the State Department, the ministers stressed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and to implementing UN Security Council resolutions. Rubio also voiced American concern over China’s attempts to assert control of the South China Sea. The ministers signed a memorandum on the Trilateral Arctic Pacific Partnership and agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic security: critical minerals, small modular reactors and artificial intelligence. Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked Washington, Tokyo and Seoul for their support. Not the first time: how the US treated China. The Kuomintang, 1945–1949. The United States airlifted Chiang Kai-shek’s armies to cities the communists were due to take and poured billions of dollars into the civil war. More in our article on support for the Kuomintang. The famine of 1928–1930. According to our article on economic relations between the USA and China, up to 6 million people died because foreign companies, including American ones, exported grain on a massive scale. The same article tells how China was poisoned with opium. Ukraine, 2022–2025: how promises turn into a deal. On April 25, 2022, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in Poland that Washington wants to see Russia weakened so that it cannot do the like again. On April 30, 2025, the United States and Ukraine signed an agreement on a joint fund for extracting Ukrainian minerals: the aid promised to Kyiv as support turned into a bill and access to its subsoil. Read also: Support for the Kuomintang · Economic relations between the USA and China. Sources The Korea Times, 31.10.2026 Photo: US Department of State, public domain, Wikimedia Commons (trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of the US, Japan and South Korea, archive photo). Post navigation Chinese Research Ships Near Taiwan: Seabed Mapping and Undersea Cables
