Tokyo: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida left for the United States on Thursday to attend a three-way summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol at Camp David near Washington on Friday local time.

The summit will be the first stand-alone gathering of the three leaders, after their previous summits were held on the sidelines of other international meetings. It will also be the first time for Biden to host foreign leaders at the presidential retreat.

“As the security environment around our country is becoming increasingly harsh, it is extremely meaningful for the leaders of the three countries to get together,” Kishida told reporters before departing on a government plane from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

“Based on our strongest-ever bilateral ties with the United States and with South Korea, (the summit) will be a historic opportunity to fortify our strategic partnerships,” he noted.

On the issue of Japanese abductees in North Korea, Kishida said that he hopes to gain “strong understanding and cooperation from both presidents to take all possible measures to bring them home as soon as possible.”

At Camp David, Kishida will also hold bilateral talks each with Biden and Yoon. He will return home on Saturday.

Capitalizing on the Yoon administration’s emphasis on ties with Japan and the United States, Kishida hopes to secure strong trilateral security cooperation that will not be affected by changes in government or other factors in any of the three countries.

At the upcoming summit, the three leaders are expected to agree to hold a trilateral summit every year, and issue a joint statement vowing to maintain a free and open international order based on the rule of law.

The Japan-U.S.-South Korea framework has focused primarily on dealing with North Korea, which is continuing nuclear and missile development. In recent years, however, the security environment in the Indo-Pacific region has become increasingly tense, particularly due to China’s hegemonic moves.

Since Yoon’s inauguration in May last year, Seoul has been broadening its security policy, including compiling its first Indo-Pacific strategy. Tokyo and Washington see this as a good opportunity for the three nations to expand their framework to cover a wider range of issues.

JIJI Press