How pro-Ukraine alliance’s success explains why Biden is in Asia

As Joe Biden arrived in South Korea Friday for his first trip to Asia as president, he left behind rumblings in Washington questioning the timing of the trip.

For some, this is not the moment to distract the United States from the biggest international crisis of the day, Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.

The criticism is the inverse of the so-called “Asia-firsters” who for months have taken Mr. Biden and the administration to task for lavishing time and resources on Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – at the expense, they say, of America’s focus on the bigger long-term geopolitical challenge, China.

But in many respects, some regional and foreign policy experts say, now is actually the right time for President Biden’s five-day Asia visit, which will also take him to Japan and include a summit of the so-called “Quad”