(CNN) – The United States and South Korea reached a new preliminary five-year agreement to share the costs of US forces based in South Koreathe State Department announced this Friday, in an agreement that would safeguard the long-standing alliance ahead of a possible victory for former President Donald Trump in November.
The current deal does not expire until the end of 2025, but both sides felt urgency to get the deal done before a possible second Trump administration, two US officials and two former US officials familiar with the discussions previously told CNN. Negotiations over the Special Measures Agreement, known as SMA, strained the alliance during the Trump administration, with the former president demanding that Seoul pay up to 400% more for the presence of the 28,500 US troops in the country during negotiations over the agreement. current.
Specific details about the announced new deal, including its cost, when it will be signed and when it will take effect, were not immediately released. Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the new agreement was reached after eight rounds of negotiations. It will have to be approved by South Korea’s National Assembly, which is dominated by the opposition party to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, and the US Congress has no role in finalizing a deal on the US side.
Proponents argue that a significant U.S. troop presence on the Korean Peninsula is crucial to strengthening the alliance between the two countries. The troops are important to both countries as a means of deterring any potential North Korean attack as Kim Jong Un’s regime continues to build its nuclear arsenal and as a way to bolster the U.S. presence in the region to counter U.S. aggression. China.
There was more urgency to close the deal before the end of the year on the Korean side, given the turmoil of the previous round of negotiations, the officials said. Some officials feared that striking a deal now could trigger criticism from Trump, and they did not want the alliance to be in the former president’s line of fire if he wins the election in November.
Under the current agreement, South Korea pays around US$1.13 billion annually, which represents an increase of approximately 13.9% over the previous SMAs.
Trump administration officials largely negotiated the terms of the latest agreement, but it did not take effect until March 2021, just a few months after President Joe Biden took office, allowing administration officials Biden made changes that brought the agreement to its final state.
During the initial phase of the talks, CNN reported that Trump had asked South Korea to pay $4.7 billion a year, a demand that came out of the blue and sent State and Defense Department officials scrambling to justify the figure.
Earlier this year, Trump said he didn’t believe South Korea was paying enough under the latest deal.
“They were able to renegotiate with the Biden administration and reduce that number to what it was before, which was almost nothing,” Trump said earlier this year during a interview with Time. “Why would we defend someone? And we are talking about a very rich country. But they are a very rich country and why wouldn’t they want to pay?”
Some former U.S. officials have warned South Korea not to move too quickly toward a deal because it could backfire if Trump ends up in the White House.
CNN’s Gawon Bae contributed to this report.
