- The leaders will be hosted by Biden in the Maryland Catoctin Mountains.
- Leaders plan to enhance intelligence-sharing agreements and establish a three-way hotline for crisis communication.
- South Korea fears North Korea plans an intercontinental ballistic missile test.
At Camp David, a hideaway in Maryland, US Vice President Joe Biden is hosting the first-ever trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea. The summit intends to be a show of force as the nations struggle with North Korea’s ongoing provocative actions and strengthen their alliances in the Indo-Pacific amid worries about a growing China.
The leaders will be hosted by Biden in the Maryland Catoctin Mountains, where they intend to strengthen defense, technological, and economic collaboration between the three nations.
A trilateral summit
The leaders will discuss expanded intelligence-sharing agreements and set up annual military training, including routine ballistic missile rehearsals. They will also take efforts to establish the trilateral summit as an annual event and set up a three-way hotline for the leaders to communicate in times of crisis.
The summit won’t result in a three-way collective defense agreement, but it will highlight the fact that any challenge to one of the nations is a challenge to them all.
On Friday morning at Camp David for the trilateral discussions, Biden will welcome the leaders, and they will likely have a joint news conference after the summit.
The likelihood of trilateral progress was not always a certainty, though, as decades of hostility and mistrust had dogged the relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
This study has been regarded by US authorities as being a crucial step in establishing the trilateral alliance, which was previously unthinkable. China’s entire strategy is predicated on the idea that America’s top and second allies in the region can’t agree on anything.
The US and South Korea will be conducting joint military exercises starting next week, and South Korea fears that North Korea is planning an intercontinental ballistic missile test and other “provocations” in the lead-up to the meeting.
