Yoon, Biden, Kishida agree to strengthen trilateral cooperation to new level

May 22, 2023, 09:21 am

		0
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida greet each other ahead of their trilateral talks in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 21, 2023, on the sidelines of the G7 Summit./ Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who visited Japan to attend the G7 Summit, held a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday and decided to strengthen cooperation among the three countries to a new level.

The leaders of South Korea, the United States, and Japan met at the Grand Prince Hotel in Hiroshima, the venue of the G7 Summit, and praised the recent meetings between the leaders and shared their opinions, according to South Korea’s presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

The latest trilateral meeting came six months after the three leaders sat down together during the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia last November. Biden decided to invite his South Korean and Japanese counterparts for another trilateral meeting in Washington to discuss about the new level of cooperation.

“The leaders agreed to strengthen their strategic trilateral cooperation in order to bolster deterrence against North Korea and consolidate a free, open and rule-based international order,” Lee said.

The leaders also agreed to deepen cooperation in various fields, including trilateral security cooperation, namely real-time sharing of North Korea’s missile warning data, stronger coordination for Indo-Pacific strategies, economic security, and engagement with Pacific Island countries.

The three countries did not issue a separate joint statement as the leaders have recently met and issued a joint statement several times. Instead, the talks are believed to have focused on confirming and evaluating that everyone has a clear will to the joint development of the three countries.

The scope of the “new level of cooperation” has not been announced in detail, but considering that the presidential office mentioned the “trilateral cooperation on Indo-Pacific strategy and economic security,” the three countries’ high-tech industry cooperation is expected to be discussed.

In a joint statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the South Korea-U.S. alliance released last month, Yoon and Biden pledged to further enhance economic security by deepening and broadening cooperation on critical and emerging technologies. In a meeting with Yoon, Kishida mentioned that he wanted to discuss ways to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation on global issues together.

The “new level of development” of the three countries is expected to be derived from the upcoming trilateral meeting in Washington D.C. According to the White House, Biden officially proposed inviting Yoon and Kishida to Washington to hold trilateral talks. The specific schedule is unknown, but it is expected to be set soon.

The White House said that Biden commended Yoon and Kishida for their “courageous” work to improve bilateral ties, noting that the trilateral partnership and the Indo-Pacific are stronger because of their efforts.

#trilateral meeting #summit #Yoon Suk-yeol #Joe Biden #Fumio Kishida