US, Japan, South Korea Expand Security Ties At Key Summit Noting Threat Posed By China, North Korea

Biden and officials from the US, South Korea, and Japan all agreed that the summit “was not about China” but was focused on broader security issues.

United States President Joe Biden along with the leaders of Japan and South Korea agreed on Friday to strengthen security and economic ties at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David, cementing a new agreement with the allies whose relations with China and North Korea are becoming increasingly tense.

Biden said that countries will create a communications hotline to talk about how to deal with threats. He announced the agreements, called the "Camp David Principles," after finishing his discussions with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together. And I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden was quoted by AP in its report. 

“The purpose of our trilateral security cooperation is and will remain to promote and enhance peace and stability throughout the region,” the leaders said in a joint statement.

Biden and officials from the US, South Korea, and Japan all agreed that the summit “was not about China” but was focused on broader security issues. However, the leaders in their final statement after the meeting expressed their concerns about China's “dangerous and aggressive” action in the South China Sea. They firmly opposed any attempts by China to change the current situation in the region without cooperation from other countries in the Indo-Pacific area.

 

Yoon pointed out that North Korea is a big risk and stated that the three leaders have agreed to improve “our joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which have become sophisticated more than ever.”

 

He said as the three appeared before reporters that “today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership.”

 

Japan’s Kishida said before the private talks that “the fact that we, the three leaders, have got together in this way, I believe means that we are indeed making a new history as of today. The international community is at a turning point in history.”