On 18 August 2023, the first-ever stand-alone summit of top leaders of the U.S., Japan and Republic of Korea (ROK) was hosted by President Biden at Camp David. The three leaders reached an agreement on establishing a ‘new era’ of trilateral partnership and reiterated that multi-faceted cooperation among the U.S., Japan, Republic of Korea (ROK) promotes and improves the security and prosperity of the people of the three states, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ region, and the world at large.[1] The pledge for a “new era of cooperation” leaves little doubt that one of the prime objectives of this summit was to portray unity and resolve and send a message to other actors in the region, evidently China and North Korea. However, the U.S. has stated that the summit was not aimed towards containing China’s posture in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ space; rather it was to strengthen trilateral engagement focusing on new areas of cooperation along with peace and security in the ‘Indo-Pacific’ region.[2] Undoubtedly, the summit is a testament that the U.S., Japan and ROK are now more closely aligned than before in their strategic policies, which is further strengthened by commonalities in shared principles and views regarding common threats.
