Photo : YONHAP News
U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) for fiscal year 2022.
The bill, which stipulates funding for the Defense Department and other defense operations for next year, is worth a record 768 billion dollars. Compared to the 2021 NDAA, it’s up five percent.
The legislation underlined the need to boost the South Korea-U.S. alliance and maintain the current presence of 28-thousand-500 troops in South Korea as it stressed the need to strengthen alliances in the Indo-Pacific region for the sake of strategic competition with China.
The bill assessed that keeping the current troop level complies with the Mutual Defense Treaty between the United States and Republic of Korea and supports the joint objective of establishing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
The 2022 NDAA, however, does not include a Trump-era clause that prohibited the use of the budget to reduce the size of U.S. Forces Korea(USFK).
In pursuing the exclusion of that clause, Congress and the U.S. government are said to have explained that the clause is no longer required given that the Biden administration, which places importance on the alliance, has no intent to reduce the presence of troops in South Korea.
Biden Signs NDAA for Fiscal Year 2022
Source: Matira Matibay
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