Japan, South Korea and the United States are looking to establish a hotline for urgent communications, following a trilateral leaders summit in Washington set for Friday, according to a senior U.S. official.
“We're going to invest in technology to have a three-way hotline for the leaders and others inside their governments to communicate,” White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said during an event at a Washington think tank on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida departed for Washington on Thursday for the first standalone trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean leader Yoon Suk-yeol the following day at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where the three are expected to agree on a “very ambitious set of initiatives that seek to lock in trilateral engagement,” according to Campbell.
As part of these initiatives, Campbell confirmed that the leaders would agree to hold three-way summits at least once a year. They are also expected to announce more frequent joint military drills around the Korean Peninsula, as well as bolstering intelligence-sharing — including real-time warning data on North Korean missile launches.
In response to the summit, Pyongyang may time an intercontinental ballistic missile launch to coincide with the meeting, South Korea’s spy service was cited as saying by a lawmaker Thursday. North Korea is also looking to hold military drills that could include tests of missiles designed to deliver nuclear bombs to Japan and South Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the lawmaker.
Meanwhile, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported Thursday that Japan, South Korea and the U.S. would release at least two joint documents, including one entitled the “Camp David Principles,” which outlines the three nations’ basic stances on issues such as the importance of the global order based on the rule of law and the need to strengthen nuclear nonproliferation efforts.
In particular, the document will emphasize that any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force will not be tolerated. That expression has taken on new urgency amid Russia's continued war in Ukraine and concerns over China's rapid military modernization.
Separately, a joint statement focusing on specific areas of cooperation, including the creation of four consultative bodies among the country’s leaders, top diplomats, defense chiefs and national security chiefs to be convened regularly, was also expected to be released.
U.S. officials have said the joint statement is also likely to touch on the necessity of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Any mention of democratic Taiwan in particular — which China claims as a breakaway province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary — will be sure to raise suspicions that the bolstered trilateral links are intended to help the U.S. confront Beijing.
Kishida has repeatedly stressed concerns that Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow, a view widely seen as warning of a possible emergency over Taiwan or on the Korean Peninsula.
Ahead of his departure, Kishida said Thursday in Tokyo that the summit would be a "a historic opportunity to strengthen the strategic partnership among the three countries."
"As the security environment becomes increasingly severe, it is of great significance that the Japanese, U.S. and South Korean leaders will meet at this time," Kishida added.
The three leaders are also expected to use the joint statement to signal deeper cooperation on cybersecurity, supply chain resilience and fighting economic coercion.
Campbell, the top U.S. adviser on the Indo-Pacific region, said the summit would set the stage for a “much broader, deeper, thicker trilateral set of engagements” going forward as the leaders seek to institutionalize the three-way relationship and make it more resistant to political change within their own countries.
He said the aim of the summit was to "try to embed this in our politics in such a way that it will be hard for any leader in either of the three countries" to back out.
The summit comes as Japan and South Korea have rapidly mended their relationship after it plunged to fresh depths in recent years due to disagreements over wartime labor and other issues, though observers say ties remain fragile, and a future leader could reverse course with relative ease.
As for the U.S., concerns remain that a return of Donald Trump to the White House could also adversely impact trilateral progress. Trump had repeatedly demanded that Japan and South Korea dole out more cash for having U.S. military forces based in the countries.
“We have the confidence that we will be able to sustain and build on what we believe will be a defining trilateral relationship for the 21st century,” Campbell said.
But while touting trilateral progress and goals, he was also careful to temper expectations.
“I think we can imagine a future with more ambition, but ... the key is not to get too far over your skis, take this a step at a time to build appropriately to not get beyond the domestic context of which we're doing,” Campbell said.
The three leaders, he added, would discuss how to extend elements of “bilateral engagements into a trilateral setting” in a prudent, careful and responsible manner.
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