ROK-JAPAN: Trilateral Leaders Summit To Take Place This Year

Wires carrying comments from US Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, saying he and his counterparts from South Korea and Japan are, "to prepare the way for leaders meeting between US, Japan and South Korea later this year."

• Japan's Kyodo news agency reported in April that a leaders summit would likely take place in July on the margins of the NATO summit in Washington DC which both South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida are expected to attend.
• Kyodo noted that, Biden, Kishida, Yoon, "are likely to discuss issues including bolstering deterrence against China, North Korea's nuclear threat and that country's deepening military ties with Russia."
• The three leaders met at Camp David for a trilatal in August 2023 which they described in a joint statement as innaugurating a, "new era of trilateral partnership," at, "a hinge point of history."
• Comes as this week Kishida, Yoon, and Chinese Premier Li Qiang met in Seoul for a first trilateral summit since 2019.
• Responsible Statecraft wrote: "The three governments committed themselves to improving communications through regular summits and deepening cooperation on trade, cultural exchanges, and non-traditional security issues like climate change, natural disaster relief, and public health. They also agreed to resume their trilateral free trade agreement negotiations, which started in 2012 and have yet to be finalized."