Joe Biden is looking for a way to weave the US trilateral relationship with allies Japan and South Korea so tightly together it won’t unravel as it has done in the past.
In an unprecedented stand-alone summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in rural Maryland, the US leader will be conferring with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on how to tackle the challenges posed by China and nuclear-armed North Korea.
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They are set to issue two statements on their principles and plans going forward. A three-way hot line and annual military exercises, as well as making the summit itself a yearly event, are expected to be among the pledges.
Having the leaders of South Korea and Japan take part in a cozy getaway together would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. Ill feeling over Japan’s misdeeds during its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula has echoed down the decades, flaring into angry standoffs over compensation under Yoon’s predecessor.
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