SEOUL/TOKYO — The United States, Japan and South Korea agreed to hold new trilateral joint exercises this summer, a joint statement issued by US Department of Defence said on Sunday (June 2), after a meeting of the three allies' defence ministers.
US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Japan's Defence Minister Minoru Kihara and South Korea's Defence Minister Shin Won-sik met on Sunday in Singapore on the sidelines of the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit there.
The three "committed to continue to strengthen trilateral co-operation to ensure peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula, the Indo-Pacific, and beyond," according to the statement.
The three also agreed to establish a Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework this year in an effort to institutionalise their three-way defence co-operation.
The top defence officials of the three countries criticised North Korea's recent launches of ballistic missiles and a military spy satellite using ballistic missile technology as a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
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