President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea and Japan starting today is significant on several counts. Not only would this be his first visit to Asia as US president but the timing lends it even greater importance. What he has to say in Seoul and Tokyo will be closely pored over for clues as to where the United States stands on critical issues beyond these two capitals.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the escalation of the military threat posed by North Korea, rising tension in the Taiwan Strait, and intensifying US-China rivalry are some of the storm clouds over a region battered by the pandemic and on edge over the possibility of conflict in Asia.