In their first stand-alone trilateral summit, the leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea met at the American President’s rural retreat in Camp David, Maryland, on Aug 18. As expected, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol reached an agreement on enhanced security cooperation including annual trilateral military exercises, regular meetings among the three leaders and their top Cabinet officials, and closer coordination of their respective defences against ballistic missiles.

Officials and government-controlled media of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have condemned US-Japan-South Korea trilateralism as a “small Asian Nato” that somehow is both “doomed to fail” and will bring “geopolitical tragedy” upon the region.