Minister Cho Hyun of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 7th (local time) held a South Korea-U.S.-Japan foreign ministers' meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Ankara, Türkiye, and discussed the Korean Peninsula issue, security cooperation, and economic security cooperation.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that day, the Minister said it was meaningful that this year's first South Korea-U.S.-Japan foreign ministers' meeting was held on the sidelines of the NATO summit, and emphasized that amid changes in the global security environment, the importance of cooperation among reliable allies is growing. The Minister then proposed that South Korea, the United States, and Japan further strengthen cooperation for shared security and prosperity.
Secretary Rubio and Minister Motegi also agreed to expand practical cooperation to benefit the people of the three countries and to promote peace and prosperity in the region.
The three ministers shared assessments of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and agreed to continue coordination on North Korea policy, including responses to North Korea's illegal cyber activities. They also agreed that efforts to achieve peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy should continue while maintaining the principle of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
They shared the view that, to ensure peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and the international community, security cooperation among South Korea, the United States, and Japan and coordination on global issues have become even more important. They then agreed to develop concrete cooperation measures in areas such as responses to transnational crime, disaster relief and humanitarian assistance, and the Arctic.
The three ministers also exchanged views on regional and international developments, including in Northeast Asia and the Middle East, and reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the region. They also agreed to continue close coordination to that end.
They reaffirmed that economic security cooperation is a core pillar of trilateral cooperation. The three ministers agreed to expand cooperation in nuclear power, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum technology, and to deepen cooperation to strengthen supply chain resilience and respond to economic coercion.
They also welcomed the "South Korea-U.S.-Japan small modular reactor (SMR) memorandum of cooperation (MoC)" signed that day and said they expect it to lay the groundwork for cooperation among the three countries' corporations in the global nuclear power plant supply chain.
The memorandum of cooperation includes support for standardized SMR construction projects, formation of consortia among corporations of the three countries, financing and capacity building for projects in export destination countries, and support for technology, fuel, equipment, and services.
The three ministers agreed to continue close communication among the foreign ministers and to work together to make concrete progress on cooperation in each field. To that end, they also agreed to continue supporting the role of the South Korea-U.S.-Japan secretariats.