US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Tokyo, November 7, 2023 (Jonathan Ernst/AP)

I joined Monocle Radio’s Georgina Godwin on Tuesday to analyze how — amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and mass killings in Israel and Gaza — the US is reaffirming its commitments to Asian partners.

I review this week’s trip by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting in Japan, to South Korea for bilateral discussions, and to the 2+2 Dialogue of US and Indian Foreign and Defense Ministers in Delhi.

I set out the contexts of China and North Korea to explain how the Biden Adminstration is trying to demonstrate that it can “walk and chew gum at the same time”.

And I look at the role of Asian countries in the crises over Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Gaza.

In this era of social media, no country is in a bubble, no economy is in a bubble from what is happening elsewhere. Even if these countries wanted to stand aside from Israel and Palestine, the ramifications could affect them.

Listen from 13:43: