SGGP 08/18/2023 06:29

According to Reuters news agency, on August 18, US President Joe Biden, along with his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, attended a trilateral summit at Camp David, Maryland, USA. The White House announced that the conference would take US-Japan-Korea cooperation to a new level.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid in 2022

Maintain security and stability

The US-Japan-ROK summit marks the first time President Biden has welcomed foreign leaders to Camp David since taking office in 2021. It is also the first standalone summit between President Joe Biden, President Yoon Suk-yeol and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Previous trilateral discussions have been held on the sidelines of international conferences.

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the leaders will discuss priority issues of mutual concern to the three countries such as economic security, emerging technology, humanitarian assistance and development programs. At the summit, the leaders of the US, Japan and South Korea are expected to agree on ways to “further institutionalize” the framework mechanism for security cooperation between the three countries. This mechanism plays an essential role in maintaining security and stability in and outside the Asian region. Accordingly, the steps will begin with regular meetings between senior officials of the three countries. In addition, annual joint anti-submarine and missile defense exercises will be conducted with the participation of the Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF), the US military and the South Korean military.

The three leaders are expected to issue a joint statement outlining the basic principles for cooperation. The contents revolve around agreeing to establish annual meetings, outlining cooperation in the fields of missile development, cyber security, economic security, supply chain protection and the North Korea issue.

The right time

Since May 2023, President Biden has proposed holding a trilateral summit. Washington wants to create a sustainable and stable cooperation framework in the face of leadership changes in the three countries as well as changes in the international community. It can be seen that the first goal of this summit is to "institutionalize" trilateral cooperation into an official framework.

In addition, this is also considered an appropriate time to promote trilateral cooperation, after Japan and South Korea achieved breakthroughs in mending bilateral relations earlier this year, removing territorial and historical bottlenecks that affected security and trade relations.

Ellen Kim, deputy director of the Korea Research Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, said that the US-Japan-South Korea summit this time is of strategic importance to all three countries, allowing leaders to expand cooperation in the face of increasing uncertainties in the regional and global security environment. Meanwhile, Shihoko Goto, acting director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, assessed that the success of the trilateral summit will depend on the sustainability of the partnership between the two powerful economies in Asia, Japan and South Korea.