WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States, Japan and South Korea are expected to announce plans for expanded military cooperation on ballistic missile defenses and technology development in the face of growing concern about North Korea’s nuclear program when the countries’ leaders gather at Camp David for a summit Friday, according to two senior Biden administration officials.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning for the summit, said the announcements will be part of a broad set of initiatives that will be unveiled as President Joe Biden hosts Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for the one-day gathering at the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains.
The summit is the first Biden has held during his presidency at Camp David and comes amid a thaw in the historically complicated relationship between Japan and South Korea. Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
The White House is looking to build on the recent diplomatic momentum and aims to use the summit for “institutionalizing, deepening and thickening the habits of cooperation” between the three countries as they face an increasingly complicated Pacific, one official said.
Source : AP News