Cooperation fortifies Japan, South Korea, U.S. ties
Japan, South Korea and the United States are strengthening security ties in response to regional threats.
The nations pledged to expand exercise Freedom Edge to promote defense interoperability and protect regional and global peace in the face of North Korea’s nuclear provocations. In its first iteration in June 2024, the trilateral exercise mobilized personnel, ships and aircraft for drills to counter maritime, air and cyber threats.
Coast Guard vessels from the three nations also conducted a drill in June 2024 off Japan’s coast amid the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) increasing assertiveness in pressing illegal territorial claims.
Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have pledged to hold regular defense minister meetings and ensure a resilient framework for cooperation.
Imperiling Indo-Pacific security are the PRC’s claims to almost all the South China Sea, despite an international tribunal’s 2016 ruling that invalidated the territorial assertion. Tokyo has reinforced defenses in southwestern Japan in response to the PRC’s growing assertiveness around Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by Beijing.
The PRC also routinely sends coast guard vessels into waters around the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
Meanwhile, analysts say North Korea’s illicit military cooperation with Russia jeopardizes stability in the
Indo-Pacific and across the globe. Staff and News Agency Report
