CAMP DAVID: At a Camp David summit, the United States, South Korea and Japan will deepen military and economic ties as the allies seek to project unity in the face of nuclear threats from North Korea.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told a Camp David news briefing the meeting would announce "significant steps" to enhance trilateral security cooperation, including a commitment to consult each other in times of crisis.
Sullivan said the steps would include a multi-year military exercise plan, deeper coordination and integration on ballistic missile defense and improved information sharing, crisis communication and policy coordination "that goes along with responding to contingencies in the Indo-Pacific."
He said the leaders would also unveil new economic and energy security initiatives including an early warning mechanism for supply chain disruptions.
The commitments, which fall short of a formal alliance, will be the centerpiece of U.S. President Joe Biden's first Camp David summit for foreign leaders and represents a significant move for Seoul and Tokyo, which have a long history of mutual acrimony and distrust.
Biden is welcoming South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the mountainside presidential retreat, where they are expected to have several hours to strategize over how to manage tensions in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.
The summit is expected to produce a series of joint statements, including commitments to establish a crisis hotline, work together on emerging technologies and to meet annually.
The meeting is freighted with symbolism: with Washington's encouragement, Tokyo and Seoul are navigating their way past disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
Those disputes are among the reasons the leaders would not now consider a mutual-defense pact along the lines of what the United States has separately with both South Korea and Japan - who are not themselves formal allies - according to U.S. officials who declined to be identified while previewing the summit.
"What we have seen over the last couple of months is a breathtaking kind of diplomacy, that has been led by courageous leaders in both Japan and South Korea," said Kurt Campbell, Biden's coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs.
"They have sometimes gone against the advice of their own counselors and staff and taken steps that elevate the Japan-South Korea relationship into a new plane," Campbell said. — Reuters
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