New chapter in trilateral relationship has begun

By Ahn Ho-young

The leaders of the Republic of Korea, Japan and the United States convened at Camp David on Aug. 18 for a trilateral summit. The three leaders agreed to strengthen their respective economies, support the free and open international order based on the rule of law, and bolster regional and global peace and security. The three leaders wrapped up their joint statement by declaring that “a new chapter in our trilateral relationship has begun.” I wholeheartedly agree with that statement.

It is time for a new chapter in the trilateral relationship. In the past 70 years, the rules-based liberal order offered a stable international basis for industrialization, democratization and national development in various areas for a large number of countries. That order is being seriously challenged around the world. For that reason, today has been defined as a pivotal point in history in the joint statement: “a hinge point of history, when geopolitical competition, the climate crisis, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, and nuclear provocations test us.”

As the joint statement states, “This is a moment that requires unity and coordinated action from true partners.” That in fact is the reason why the U.S. has been promoting mini-lateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, such as Quad and AUKUS (Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.). One region where such regional cooperation is badly needed is Northeast Asia. For that, we had to overcome a long-standing barrier; the bilateral relations between Korea and Japan, fraught with issues of history. President Yoon took important steps in that direction through a series of courageous moves. His moves led to appreciable rapprochement in relations between Korea and Japan, which made it possible to usher in a new chapter in the trilateral relationship.

It's a new chapter in our trilateral relationship, because the three leaders committed themselves to significantly enhancing the trilateral partnership for security.

The three leaders committed themselves to a new mechanism of consultation on security matters: “We announce our governments' commitment to consult with each other in an expeditious manner to coordinate our responses to regional challenges, provocations, and threats that affect our collective interests and security.” To ensure effective implementation of the commitment, they agreed to set up a hotline among the three leaders. They also agreed to hold trilateral meetings between the three nations' leaders, foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers at least annually.

In particular, the three leaders agreed to a large number of measures to deal more effectively with the denuclearization of North Korea. They announced the establishment of a new working group to combat North Korea's cyber threats.

They also announced their intention to hold annual, multi-domain trilateral exercises on a regular basis to enhance their coordinated capabilities and cooperation.

The enhanced trilateral partnership for security, along with the U.S.-ROK and the U.S.-Japan alliances and other mini-lateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, such as Quad and AUKUS, will send a strong message and deter actors in the region from any unilateral attempts to use force and change the status quo in the Indo-Pacific.

It's a new chapter in the trilateral relationship because the three leaders agreed to maintain focus on building robust cooperation in the economic security and technology spheres. They took note of ongoing trilateral cooperation in the fields of the economy and technology, particularly on semiconductors and batteries, as well as on technology security and standards, clean energy and energy security, biotechnology, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and scientific research.

The three leaders took new steps as well. They agreed to launch early warning system pilots to expand information sharing and enhance policy coordination on global supply chains. They also agreed to expand trilateral collaborative research and development, in such sectors as cooperation to open a radio access network (RAN) and space security cooperation.

I have long thought that the Korea-U.S. alliance, which hinges upon the two pillars of security and the economy, must advance to establishing a third pillar in enhanced cooperation in technology. It has strong implications for both Korea's economy and security. The Korean economy cannot continue to grow without making new breakthroughs in technology on top of what it has achieved in semiconductors, batteries and information and communication technologies. New technologies, for example AI, can have a serious impact on the way wars are fought in the future as well. In that sense, it is reassuring that the three leaders agreed on significantly enhancing the trilateral partnership for technology.

For all these reasons, a large number of commentators agree that “a new chapter in our trilateral relationship has begun.” At the same time, they add caveats. The implementation of the vast areas of agreements made at Camp David will require heavy resource allocation of time, budgets and personnel in all three countries.

Furthermore, the three countries are all democracies, where leadership changes every several years. For that reason, we cannot overemphasize the importance of letting leaders, opinion-makers and citizens of our countries understand the importance of the trilateral partnership at this hinge point in history.

Ahn Ho-young is chair professor at Kyungnam University. He served as vice foreign minister and Korean ambassador to the United States.