US, South Korea, Japan hold talks to reaffirm 'unwavering' commitment to trilateral cooperation

Seoul, May 20 (IANS) Diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan convened their trilateral secretariat managing board in Washington on Monday to reaffirm the three countries' "unwavering" commitment to advancing three-way cooperation, the US State Department said.

Yi Won-woo, deputy director-general for North American affairs at Seoul's foreign ministry; US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for China, Japan, Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan Kevin Kim; and Akihiro Okochi, deputy director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at Japan's foreign ministry, led the meeting of the Trilateral Coordinating Secretariat Managing Board.

"The meeting underscored the shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific and the importance of institutionalising collaboration across economic, security, and people-to-people domains," the department said in a media note.

Board members took stock of recent progress on trilateral cooperation efforts and discussed the next steps to enhance coordination, increase information sharing and strengthen joint responses to regional and global challenges, the department said.

"The Managing Board emphasised continued support for the Secretariat's work in operationalising trilateral outcomes and sustaining momentum across priority lines of effort," it said.

In November, the three countries announced the establishment of the secretariat to institutionalise trilateral cooperation in the face of regional and global challenges, including North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile threats, Russia's war in Ukraine and China's growing assertiveness, reports Yonhap news agency.

Monday's talks included discussions on major regional common challenges and a review of the implementation status of recent trilateral cooperation initiatives, Seoul's foreign ministry said in a release following the talks.

"The three sides explored ways to further develop future collaboration and discussed expanding the role of the secretariat to make trilateral cooperation more action-oriented and substantive," the ministry said.

--IANS

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