Japan, South Korea and the United States have agreed to finalize establishment of a trilateral cooperation secretariat — formally institutionalizing the nations’ collaboration and providing continuity as Japan and the U.S. prepare for leadership changes, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Today’s meeting is very important for three reasons,” said South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, who joined Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2024. “One, it is a testament to our commitment to the trilateral cooperation, unwavering amidst the significant political events afoot. Two, it demonstrates our common resolve to cooperate closely on and steadfastly respond to any provocation by North Korea. Three, it is a recognition of our determination to work closely together to address global issues as members of the U.N. Security Council, where we are seated together for the first time in 27 years.”
Blinken, Cho and Kamikawa discussed the need for more integration to respond to deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, which threatens stability in Northeast Asia and Europe, according to the U.S. State Department.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and U.S. President Joe Biden held a summit in August 2023 at Camp David in Maryland aimed at deepening relations among the three countries and addressing geopolitical threats.
The summit’s joint statement, The Spirit of Camp David, lists areas of collaboration, including missile defense, cybersecurity, economic development, human rights, financial integrity and climate change. Central to the statement: the importance of countering threats to the rules-based international system from North Korea, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia.
The countries will meet again in late 2024 to formally establish the secretariat.
“The security environment surrounding us is becoming increasingly severe, and the free and open international order based on the rule of law is facing serious challenges, and that is making our strategic collaboration more important than ever,” Kamikawa said. “We would like to further strengthen our coordination in dealing with North Korea and in a wide range of fields.”
Blinken said the trilateral “is stronger than it’s ever been, more effective than it’s ever been, and more important than it’s ever been, given the shared challenges that we face as well as the many opportunities before us to seize. Since the historic Camp David meeting, we’ve worked very hard to institutionalize this work.
“We have political transitions in Japan and the United States, but this [trilateral], irrespective of those transitions, will remain vital to the future of all three of our countries —_ a future that we are working to shape together,” he said. “I look forward to more work in the course of this year in the trilateral format.”
