As tensions remain high in the Pacific over China’s assertiveness, America, South Korea and Japan act to increase cooperation. Top defence
functionaries of the three nations, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, South Korean Defence Minister Shin Won-sik and Japanese Defense
Minister Minoru Kihara held a meet on the sidelines of Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore. This was just days after China held a massive exercise in which it practiced blockading the tiny island nation. China also claims Japan’s Senkaku Islands north of Taiwan.
A statement released after the meet stated that the three nations are committed to continue to strengthen trilateral cooperation to ensure peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and beyond. An agreement was also reached on a trilateral security cooperation framework in an effort to institutionalize tripartite defence cooperation. Both South Korea and Japan also decided to strengthen bilateral defence ties. The agreement between the two East Asian tech giants was the result of a 2018 incident when a South Korean ship locked on to a Japanese maritime patrol aircraft that approached the ship at a low level.
The Exercise titled Freedom Edge will be held across multiple domains such as land, air, sea, cyber and space. As of now exercises held by the
three nations are mostly in maritime and air domain. Senior officials from the three countries will also hold tabletop exercises ahead of the main exercise. The exercise will be held this summer, however exact dates have not been finalised.
The first stand-alone meet of the leaders from the three countries took place at Camp David in the United States in August last year. The meet though was the fourth for the leaders since 2022 over a trilateral partnership.
The three leaders also criticised North Korea over its dangerous and aggressive behaviour days after the hermit kingdom attempted to launch a satellite that many in the west consider a bid to test inter-continental ballistic missiles.
Dhruv Yadav
