Korea, Japan, U.S. commit to immediate consultations on common threats at trilateral summit

Diplomacy

Published: 19 Aug. 2023, 07:55 Updated: 19 Aug. 2023, 08:12

Korea, Japan, U.S. commit to immediate consultations on common threats at trilateral summit

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, left, speaks at a joint press conference with U.S. President Joe Biden, center, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida after their trilateral summit at Camp David in Maryland on Friday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The leaders of South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to immediately consult with each other in the event of threats to their collective interests and security at their trilateral summit at Camp David on Friday.

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida held a joint press conference speaking on the results of their historic standalone three-way summit at the American presidential retreat in Maryland, aimed at elevating their security and economic cooperation amid the rise of geopolitical tensions.

The three countries also agreed to hold annual joint military exercises, to cooperate closely for stronger missile defense against North Korea and to regularize the trilateral summit.

"Today, we made history with the first-ever standalone summit between the leaders of our three countries," Biden said in the joint press conference alongside Yoon and Kishida after their summit Friday afternoon.

He lauded the "political courage" it took for South Korea and Japan's leaders to improve their bilateral relations, mired by historical disputes, to enable such a trilateral summit.

Yoon in turn said that the three countries opened "a new chapter" in trilateral cooperation as they strengthen their partnership as the world faces complex crises.

He said that Camp David, a location where important diplomatic decisions have been made at critical junctures in modern history, "will be remembered as a historic place where South Korea, the United States and Japan declared their intention to promote a rules-based international order on the foundation of the common values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, and to play a central role for regional security and prosperity."

Yoon, Kishida and Biden adopted three documents at the summit: "Commitment to Consult," "Spirit of Camp David" and "Camp David Principles."

The leaders through the "Commitment to Consult" among the three countries agreed to trilateral consultations "in an expeditious manner, to coordinate our responses to regional challenges, provocations, and threats affecting our collective interests and security."

They said they "intend to share information, align our messaging, and coordinate response actions."

While the document didn't elaborate on the specific events, it is expected to include North Korea's nuclear and missile threats or other security crises in the Indo-Pacific region.

It added that the countries "retain the freedom to take all appropriate actions to uphold our security interests or sovereignty" and will not supersede any obligations under each of their bilateral alliance treaties or "give rise to rights or obligations under international or domestic law."

From left, Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida take a walk together at Camp David in Maryland on Friday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Through their joint statement on the "Spirit of Camp David," the three leaders recognized they had inaugurated "a new era of trilateral partnership" aimed at advancing the security and prosperity of all their people, the region and the world.

This comes at a "hinge point of history" amid geopolitical competition, the climate crisis, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and nuclear provocations.

"Today, we declare openly that we are united in a common purpose to strengthen our shared region," the statement read, adding the three countries are "aligned in our objectives and in our actions, generating the common capacity required to ensure that the Indo-Pacific is thriving, connected, resilient, stable, and secure."

In the field of security cooperation, the leaders agreed to operate a real-time sharing of missile warning data on North Korea by the end of this year. They also agreed to hold "annual, named, multi-domain trilateral exercises" on a regular basis to enhance their coordinated capabilities and cooperation and to promote enhanced ballistic missile defense cooperation to counter Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.

They again called for the "complete denuclearization" of North Korea, in accordance to UN Security Council resolutions, and for Pyongyang "to abandon its nuclear and ballistic missile programs." They announced the establishment of a new trilateral working group to drive cooperation to combat the North's cyber threats and block its cyber-enabled sanctions evasion.

In the statement, the United States also "unequivocally reaffirms that its extended deterrence commitments" to both South Korea and Japan "are ironclad and backed by the full range of U.S. capabilities."

The three leaders further agreed to build on cooperation in economic security and technology spheres, focusing on supply chain resilience, particularly on semiconductors and batteries, as well as on technology security and standards, clean energy and energy security, biotechnology, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and scientific research.

In "Camp David Principles," the three countries affirmed "a shared vision for our partnership as well as for the Indo-Pacific and beyond" based on a respect for international law, shared norms, and common values. This included cooperation with Asean and Pacific Island countries.

They also reaffirmed "the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community" and called for a "peaceful resolution" to issues in the area while recognizing that "there is no change" in their basic positions.

Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hold a luncheon meeting with their foreign affairs and security aides during their trilateral summit at Camp David near Thurmont, Maryland, Friday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Yoon also held separate bilateral summits with Biden and Kishida at Camp David, according to the presidential office.

In talks with Biden, the two leaders agreed to continue to closely cooperate to strengthen the credibility of extended deterrence as a follow-up to the Washington Declaration adopted at their bilateral summit in April.

Yoon and Kishida in their bilateral summit welcomed the "rapid normalization" of cooperation in economy and security between the two countries in recent months," said the presidential office. They agreed to actively work to produce "tangible results that can be felt by the people of both countries" in a wide range of fields including the economy, finance, energy, people-to-people exchanges and education.

On Thursday, Yoon arrived in Washington for a four-day trip to attend the summit. He arrived at Camp David on a U.S. marine helicopter earlier Friday morning.

The Camp David complex was first completed in 1938, and then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt made it the presidential retreat, initially naming the property "Shangri-La." It was later renamed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as "Camp David" after his grandson and has become a place for presidents and their families to get away from Washington.

Roosevelt and other presidents have used Camp David as a place to host foreign leaders and heads of state over the years, sometimes to tackle tough diplomatic negotiations.

Then-Korean President Lee Myung-bak held a bilateral summit meeting with President George W. Bush at Camp David in April 2008 during his visit to the United States.

Yoon and Kishida were the first foreign leaders to visit Camp David since 2015.

The three countries last held a brief trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima, where Biden extended the invitation to a separate standalone summit in the United States.

President Yoon Suk Yeol departs by helicopter after the trilateral summit at the Camp David presidential retreat near Thurmont, Maryland, Friday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]