The leaders of Japan, South Korea and the US on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait following a historic summit at Camp David in Maryland.
“Today, we’ve reaffirmed — all reaffirmed our shared commitment to maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” US President Joe Biden told a news conference after meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The first-ever standalone summit between Biden, Kishida and Yoon focused on expanding security, economic and technology ties between the three countries.
Photo: AP
The three countries agreed to engage in annual multi-domain military exercises, improve their information sharing and boost ballistic missile defense cooperation, Biden said.
He said they would establish a communications hotline to discuss responses to threats, while the leaders also agreed to share real-time data on North Korea and to hold summits every year.
“Our countries are stronger and the world will be safer as we stand together, and I know this is a belief that all three share,” Biden said, praising the “political courage” of Kishida and Yoon in turning the page on historical animosity.
Three documents were issued after the meeting: the Commitment to Consult, the Camp David Principles and the Spirit of Camp David.
“We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community,” the latter two state.
“Recognizing that there is no change in our basic positions on Taiwan, we call for a peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues,” the Camp David Principles say, while the Spirit of Camp David reiterates the point.
In Taipei, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a news release yesterday thanked the three governments for expressing concern about the situation in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan remains committed to working with like-minded partners to foster peace, stability and prosperity within the region, it said.
“The purpose of our trilateral security cooperation is and will remain to promote and enhance peace and stability throughout the region,” Biden, Kishida and Yoon said in a joint statement.
Biden maintained, as have US, South Korean and Japanese officials, that the summit “was not about China,” but was focused on broader security issues.
Yet, the leaders in their concluding statement noted China’s “dangerous and aggressive” action in the South China Sea, and said they “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific.”
Yoon noted in particular the threat posed by North Korea, saying the three leaders had agreed to improve “our joint response capabilities to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, which have become sophisticated more than ever.”
He said as the three appeared before reporters that “today will be remembered as a historic day, where we established a firm institutional basis and commitments to the trilateral partnership.”
Japan’s Kishida said before the talks that “the fact that we, the three leaders, have got together in this way, I believe means that we are indeed making a new history as of today. The international community is at a turning point in history.”
The visitors spoke in their home languages, using translators.
Additional reporting by AFP
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