US, Japan, South Korea strengthen partnership, sign Arctic cooperation agreement

By Diyar Guldogan

ATLANTA, US (AA) - The US, Japan and South Korea reaffirmed their commitment on Friday to strengthening security and economic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.

On the sidelines of the G20 meeting in the US city of Atlanta, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun to review progress in their three-way partnership and discuss regional security challenges, economic resilience and energy cooperation.

"The Secretary and Foreign Ministers signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) for a Trilateral Arctic Pacific Partnership (TAPP) to explore maritime cooperation and economic partnership in the Pacific Arctic," the State Department said in a statement.

The foreign ministers reiterated their commitment to North Korea's denuclearization and urged full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions.

They also emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Rubio raised China’s efforts to assert control on the South China Sea, it said.

Economic security featured prominently in the discussions, with all three expressing opposition to economic coercion and the weaponization of supply chains.

They reviewed progress on implementing a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation on Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Deployments, signed in Ankara on the sidelines of a NATO summit in July.

Diyar Güldoğan