The United States, Japan, and the Philippines have pledged to bolster their trilateral defense capabilities, including holding multilateral joint naval drills in the Indo-Pacific waters where tensions have risen.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Japanese and Philippine counterparts for the first time in Tokyo, Japan, on June 15 to discuss enhancing trilateral cooperation between their countries.
They discussed security challenges in the South China Sea and East China Sea, including North Korea’s illicit nuclear and missile programs, and reiterated the need to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait.
In a joint statement, the three officials concurred that “a free and open maritime order” is crucial in the Indo-Pacific region, “especially given unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion.”…