United States-Republic of Korea (ROK)-Japan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Tommy Pigott:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met today with ROK Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu on the margins of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meetings in Manila. The Secretary and his counterparts emphasized the importance of working with ASEAN on issues of mutual interest, including strengthening defense cooperation and maritime security, advancing energy security, combatting cyber threats, and promoting peace and stability across Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific.

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers committed to intensifying joint efforts targeting transnational criminal organizations, including networks operating scam centers that defraud and endanger citizens across the region. They committed to expanding trilateral discussions on Arctic issues, recognizing the region's growing strategic importance. They also reaffirmed commitments to defense cooperation, maritime security, and upholding freedom of navigation, and pledged continued trilateral consultations at all levels.

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers reaffirmed the importance of maintaining a unified approach toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), underscoring their shared commitment to the complete denuclearization of the DPRK and continued coordination to counter DPRK cyber threats and illicit activity as well as to the immediate resolution of the abductions issue. They also emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Secretary and Foreign Ministers noted with concern China's lack of sufficient notification of their recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch into the Pacific Ocean.

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers discussed next steps to implement the trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation on Small Modular Reactor Deployments in Other Countries signed in Ankara and to start deployment in the Indo-Pacific to advance energy diversification and technology cooperation. They also underscored the importance of economic security, reaffirmed shared opposition to economic coercion and the weaponization of supply chains, and committed to derisking and diversifying critical supply chains and to further trusted technology cooperation.

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