Tokyo, 30 June, /AJMEDIA/
U.S. President Joe Biden has invited South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for a trilateral summit in Washington later this summer, a senior U.S. official said Thursday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
Kurt Campbell, coordinator for Indo-Pacific affairs on the White House National Security Council, made the remarks as improved bilateral ties between the two Asian neighbors are expected to advance tripartite cooperation in the face of growing North Korean threats and other issues.
“President Biden extended an invitation to both Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon to come to Washington later this summer for a three-way summit between the leaders,” Campbell was quoted as saying in a pre-recorded video speech for a forum hosted by the news agency and South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
“We will celebrate the remarkable progress that’s been made in the bilateral relationship between Japan and South Korea, and to see what steps we can take to make sure we lock that progress in” and to consider what areas the three nations can cooperate on, he was quoted as saying.
Biden invited Yoon and Kishida to the United States when they met briefly in Hiroshima on the sidelines of the Group of Seven industrialized nations’ summit held last month.
If held, it will be the first such meeting solely for the trilateral leaders, rather than as part of a multilateral summit, the report said.
Relations between South Korea and Japan have been thawing since earlier this year after the leaders of the two countries agreed on a solution to a longtime dispute over wartime labor compensation.
