President Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol celebrated their “ironclad alliance” Wednesday amid fife and drums on the White House garden forward of high-level conferences and a state dinner.

Mr. Biden and first girl Jill Biden greeted Mr. Yoon and his spouse, Kim Keon Hee, sooner or later after the president introduced his formal bid for reelection.

It’s the second state go to of the Biden presidency — French President Emmanuel Macron got here for the primary — and is a part of Mr. Biden’s try and shore up U.S. alliances within the face of Chinese aggression within the Indo-Pacific and different world crises.

“Today, our economies are on the vanguard of technology development, our nations are powerhouses of innovations and our people, united still by our demographic values, are taking on the challenges of the world, and we’re taking them on together,” Mr. Biden stated.

“We’re standing strong against Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine, advancing an Indo-Pacific region that is free and open, building secure and resilient supply chains and pioneering the green energy economy.”

The U.S. president highlighted American and South Korean troops who fought within the Korean War and set the 2 nations on track for a 70-year alliance. Thousands of U.S. troops are nonetheless stationed on bases in South Korea.

“It’s an unbreakable bond, forged in bravery and the sacrifice of our people,” Mr. Biden stated earlier than ceding the stage to Mr. Yoon to supply remarks in Korean.

The South Korean chief hailed the bravery of American troops who sacrificed their lives in a faraway land within the Nineteen Fifties “for one noble cause, to defend freedom.”

Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Biden and Mr. Yoon introduced the constructive identification of the stays of Army Cpl. Luther H. Story, a Georgia man killed within the Korean War. He was honored for his valor, however his stays had not been discovered and recognized for 73 years.

Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com