U.S. summit with South Korea, Japan will seek to lock-in progress

A U.S. summit with Japan and South Korea on Friday will include an ambitious set of initiatives to lock in progress between the allies, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said

A U.S. summit with Japan and South Korea on Friday will include an ambitious set of initiatives to lock in progress between the allies, White House Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said on Wednesday.

Mr. Campbell said the U.S. relationship with Japan and South Korea would be a "defining trilateral relationship for the 21st century."

Senior U.S. administration officials have told Reuters the summit will launch joint initiatives on technology and defense, amid mounting shared concerns about China and North Korea.

"What you will see on Friday is a very ambitious set of initiatives that seek to lock in trilateral engagement, both now and in the future," Mr. Campbell told a Brookings Institution event.

The summit, at the Maryland presidential retreat of Camp David will be the first standalone meeting between the U.S. and its two allies. Campbell said plans would be announced to make it an annual event and also to invest in technology for a three-way crisis hotline.

U.S. President Joe Biden invited Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to Camp David as the Asian nations work to mend their tattered diplomatic relations in the face of rising regional threats.

Washington has formal collective defense arrangements in place with both Tokyo and Seoul separately, but it wants them to work closer together given growing concerns about China's mounting power and intentions.