The pace of government action is about to pick up on both the state and national levels.
The state Legislature opens Wednesday, and next week brings the presidential inauguration. However, in the Asia Pacific, some quieter government discussions are underway that may have a broad regional impact.
For the first time in nearly seven years, Japan's foreign minister has spent some time in South Korea.
While that's top news in both countries, it's flying a bit under the radar for many American audiences — even though the United States is very much a part of this picture.
On Monday, President Biden summarized some of what he feels are the biggest foreign policy accomplishments of his administration.
He referred to “what few felt possible, to build the first-ever trilateral partnership” among the U.S., Japan and South Korea. The future of that partnership should not be at risk under a second Trump Administration, but there are some questions.
A recent paper from the Korea Economic Institute of America, which is funded by South Korea's government, observed that “it remains to be seen just how and to what degree the incoming Trump Administration will build on the progress made in the trilateral relationship.”
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of Japan, Australia and India are all coming to Washington next week for Trump's inauguration and they are likely to meet together with incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That would be the new administration's opening diplomatic initiative and its first high-level meeting of the group known as the Quad — widely seen as a regional counterweight to Chinese influence.
