WASHINGTON/TOKYO — U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion bid for U.S. Steel cast a shadow over Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Japan on Tuesday for farewell meetings with Washington’s most important ally in Asia. The rejection, announced on Friday, has jolted U.S. efforts to boost ties with Asian allies just as South Korea’s political crisis potentially complicates a revived relationship between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo. The trilateral alliance is a key plank in the countries’ efforts to counter China’s military buildup. Investment into the U.S. could also be chilled, but analysts say any damage to the wider U.S.-Japan relationship will likely be limited given shared security concerns about China. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba described Biden’s decision to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel as “perplexing.” Accompanied by White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Blinken met Japan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya in Tokyo and will hold talks later in the day with Ishiba and other senior Japanese officials Numerous trips to Japan over the last four years “is evidence, not just of the importance, but of the centrality the United States attaches to our partnership. President Biden asked me to come on this last trip to underscore that,” Blinken told Iwaya. “We have, between our two countries, a partnership that started out focusing on bilateral issues, that worked on regional issues and that now is genuinely global,” he added. Ahead of his trip, the State Department said that Blinken wanted to build on the momentum of U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation. In Seoul on Monday, Blinken reaffirmed confidence in South Korea’s handling of its political turmoil as investigators there sought an extension of a warrant to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol. Allies of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump have also reassured Seoul and Tokyo that he will support continuing to improve ties and advance military, economic and diplomatic cooperation to counter China and North Korea, Reuters reported ahead of Trump’s Nov. 5 re-election. Tension, limited damage from Nippon Steel decision Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed a lawsuit on Monday charging that Biden violated the U.S. Constitution by blocking their $14.9 billion merger through what they termed a sham national security review. They called for the U.S. federal court to overturn the decision. Nicholas Szechenyi, a Japan expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Biden’s decision would make Blinken’s Tokyo visit “awkward.”
