US, Japan, South Korea sign Arctic pact
Atlanta: The United States, Japan and South Korea signed a memorandum to explore maritime and economic cooperation in the Pacific Arctic, as their foreign ministers discussed North Korea, regional security and threats to supply chains.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun signed the document on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta. Washington described their wider partnership as supporting security and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific.
The US State Department said the memorandum for a Trilateral Arctic Pacific Partnership, or TAPP, was signed “to explore maritime cooperation and economic partnership in the Pacific Arctic”.
Its account of the meeting did not identify specific commercial projects, investment amounts or implementation deadlines for the Arctic initiative.
The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea and full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, according to the US readout.
That included restrictions on activities generating revenue for North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. They also commended the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team’s work in exposing North Korean violations and evasion of those resolutions, the department said.
The ministers stressed the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
Rubio raised US concerns about China’s efforts to assert control over the South China Sea and what the department described as coercive behaviour in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea.
He also discussed Russia-China cooperation that Washington said undermined peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.
Economic security formed another part of the discussions. The ministers reaffirmed their opposition to economic coercion and the use of supply chains as a means of pressure, the State Department said.
They reviewed implementation of a separate trilateral memorandum on deploying small modular nuclear reactors. The department said the cooperation was intended to draw on the three countries’ combined industrial strengths to advance global energy security.
The ministers also discussed areas of economic-security cooperation identified during a trilateral consultation in Seoul on October 15. They reaffirmed commitments in their September 21 joint statement and agreed to continue trilateral meetings at all levels.
Separately, foreign ministry officials from the three countries held a telephone meeting Friday following North Korea’s ballistic missile launch a day earlier, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said.
The participants included US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Wilezol, Japanese Foreign Ministry official Takashi Ariyoshi and South Korean Foreign Ministry official Baek Yong-jin. They said North Korean ballistic missile launches violated relevant Security Council resolutions, called on Pyongyang to stop such actions and reaffirmed close coordination.
The three ministers signed the nuclear-reactor memorandum in Ankara on July 7. Japan’s Foreign Ministry said that framework seeks to coordinate private-sector participation in reactor projects in third countries and strengthen Indo-Pacific energy security. Its objectives include identifying interested host countries, encouraging industry consortia and helping mobilise financing and investment, while maintaining nuclear safety, security and non-proliferation standards.
The ministers subsequently met in New York on September 21 during the UN General Assembly. Japan’s account of those talks described cooperation on supply-chain resilience, nuclear energy, cybersecurity and joint military exercises. They also agreed to advance international disaster relief and work against transnational organised crime in Southeast Asia, in collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
