Baku, April 1, AZERTAC
The U.S. government is making arrangements for trilateral talks with the leaders of Japan and South Korea in July on the occasion of a NATO summit in Washington, Kyodo News Agency reported citing a diplomatic source.
U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to discuss with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol a range of issues including bolstering deterrence against China's growing clout and North Korea's nuclear and missile threats as well as improving cooperation with NATO, the source said.
Biden is expected to formally invite Kishida to visit the United States in July during the U.S.-Japan summit slated for April 10 in Washington.
The three countries held the first standalone trilateral summit at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David in August. There, they agreed to hold annual trilateral meetings between the leaders.
The agenda for the July summit is expected to include strengthening defense cooperation among their forces and smooth information sharing, as well as expanding their cybersecurity cooperation, according to the source.
Biden, Kishida and Yoon have met four times, as Japan-South Korea relations have rapidly improved since Yoon took office in May 2022.
Ties between Tokyo and Seoul hit a low after South Korea's Supreme Court in 2018 ordered two Japanese firms to compensate South Korean plaintiffs over wartime forced labor during Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
Biden, Kishida and Yoon held talks in Spain on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June 2022, the first such trilateral meeting in about five years.
On the fringes of another NATO summit in Lithuania in July 2023, Kishida and Yoon met bilaterally and agreed to strengthen trilateral security cooperation with the United States, hours after North Korea test-fired a intercontinental ballistic missile.