The defense chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan signed a document on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework (TSCF) on Sunday , Seoul’s defense ministry said, in a move solidifying their continued commitment to three-way security cooperation against North Korean threats.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Lloyd Austin and Minoru Kihara, respectively, inked a Memorandum of Cooperation on the framework in Tokyo amid their deepening security cooperation in response to the North’s persistent nuclear and missile threats and growing military alignment with Russia.
As the first document that institutionalizes joint efforts for trilateral security cooperation among defense authorities, it provides the direction and policy principle for areas of high-level policy consultations, information sharing and trilateral drills, according to the defense ministry.
“Accordingly, the ministers of the three nations reaffirmed the unwavering nature of the new era of trilateral cooperation,” it said in a joint press statement. The document’s signing came after South Korea proposed drawing up a joint document during a trilateral security meeting in February, followed by a meeting of the defense chiefs on the sidelines of the Shangri-la Dialogue in June where they agreed on inking the document within this year.
https://m-en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240728001851315?section=national/defense
