The leaders of Japan, the United States and South Korea will agree Friday on a range of initiatives to make their framework of cooperation more durable, leveraging the benefits of the recent rapprochement between the two Asian neighbors amid China's growing clout and North Korea's escalating threat.
The initiatives will include holding a trilateral summit at least once a year, carrying out joint defense drills more frequently, bolstering supply chains for semiconductors and other key industrial items, and working closely on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, according to senior officials of the three countries.
The steps are intended to cement the progress the United States and its two key Asian allies have made in recent months and to embed their framework in the architecture of the Indo-Pacific region, the officials said.
"I think our goal will be to lock in trilateral engagement that will make it difficult to backtrack from the commitments that each of the three will make," said a senior U.S. administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The implicit message of the summit at the U.S. presidential retreat of Camp David will be that the deepening and widening cooperation needs to be sustained regardless of any change of government among them or political upheavals, the officials said.
President Joe Biden has prioritized underlining the U.S. presence in the region as it engages in intensifying strategic competition with China.
His administration has recognized that a stronger bilateral alliance with Japan and South Korea, which have taken steps to restore relations after sharp disagreements over wartime issues, and closer cooperation among the three are indispensable to achieve that end.
Aiming for what his team of staff calls a "historic" summit and "new era" of cooperation, Biden, who is running for re-election in 2024, has chosen the secluded presidential retreat near Washington to have frank discussions.
It will be the first time since 2015 for foreign leaders to be welcomed at the retreat, which has served every U.S. president since World War II and is known as the site of some of the most important moments of U.S. diplomacy.
Japan, the United States and South Korea first held a trilateral summit in 1994. In addition, more than 10 similar occasions have been held on the fringes of larger multilateral gatherings.
Biden, Kishida and Yoon plan to release a joint statement summing up the outcome of the standalone summit as well as a separate document outlining the principles of their cooperation to chart a medium- and long-term direction, the officials said.
Some of them said that there may be a third statement focusing on the importance of trilateral consultation in the event of special circumstances.
