The leaders of Japan and South Korea on Friday put decades of frequently acrimonious relations behind them, signing on to a trilateral pact with the US that will deepen military and intelligence co-operation between the three allies.
The agreement, formally reached at President Joe Biden’s retreat at Camp David outside Washington, sets up annual summits between US, Korean and Japanese foreign and defence officials; establishes joint military exercises; and creates new lines of communication to collaborate on threats posed by North Korea and China.
At a joint news conference, Biden said the countries had “made history” with their first trilateral summit and praised his counterparts for their “political courage” — a nod to the tensions between Tokyo and Seoul that have festered since Japan’s wartime aggression more than 80 years ago.