Senior defense officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan on Tuesday reaffirmed their commitment to trilateral security cooperation and agreed to hold another three-way multi-domain exercise in the near term. The agreement came at the 15th Defense Trilateral Talks (DTT) held in Seoul, attended by South Korea's Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy Cho Chang-rae, U.S. Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Cara Abercrombie, and Japan Director General for Defense Policy Taro Yamato. "The three sides reaffirmed their enduring commitment to strengthening trilateral cooperation to contribute to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, in the Indo-Pacific region, and beyond," the three sides said in a joint statement, released by Seoul's defense ministry. In a bid to boost cooperation against North Korea's evolving threats, the officials vowed to continue to seek opportunities for trilateral exercises and update their multi-year plan for such exercises by the end of this year . They also agreed to conduct in the near term the second round of the Freedom Edge exercise, their first-ever trilateral multi-domain exercise launched in June. The meeting came in the face of deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia as well as persistent concerns over Pyongyang's weapons development, including the recent diversification of nuclear delivery systems. The next DTT is scheduled to take place in Tokyo in the first half of 2025. Source: Yonhap News Agency
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