WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. and South Korean officers outlined respective visions for a brand new settlement on sharing the price of maintaining American troops in South Korea in talks this week and can proceed to seek the advice of as needed, the chief U.S. negotiator stated on Friday.
The allies named envoys final month to launch early talks for a brand new deal to take impact in 2026. South Korean media stated the intention was for an settlement earlier than any November election comeback by former President Donald Trump, who throughout his presidency accused Seoul of “free-riding” on U.S. navy would possibly.
Forward of a primary spherical of talks in Hawaii from Tuesday to Thursday on a so-called twelfth Particular Measures Settlement (SMA), chief U.S. negotiator Linda Specht stated Washington was in search of “a good and equitable end result.”
In a short assertion on Friday, Specht stated: “The USA and Republic of Korea outlined their respective visions for the twelfth SMA … We’ll proceed to seek the advice of each time essential to additional strengthen and maintain the Alliance underneath the twelfth SMA.”
A senior Biden administration official informed Reuters final month the talks have been on monitor and forward of schedule however the U.S. didn’t see November as a “exhausting deadline.”
Greater than 28,000 American troops are stationed in South Korea as a part of efforts to discourage nuclear-armed North Korea.
South Korea started shouldering the prices of the deployment, used to fund native labor, the development of navy installations and different logistics help, within the early Nineteen Nineties.
Throughout Trump’s presidency, the perimeters struggled for months to succeed in a deal earlier than Seoul agreed to extend its contribution by 13.9% over the earlier 2019 pact underneath which Seoul had paid about $920 million yearly. It was the most important annual rise in almost 20 years.
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Trump had demanded Seoul pay as a lot as $5 billion a yr.
Based on the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace, from 2016 by way of 2019, the U.S. Protection Division spent roughly $13.4 billion in South Korea to pay navy salaries, assemble services, and carry out upkeep, whereas South Korea supplied $5.8 billion to help the U.S. presence.
The present deal expires in 2025, with negotiations on a successor pact often held simply earlier than the tip of the present one.
