President Joe Biden is using the Camp David retreat to further a diplomatic mission by hosting the first-ever trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea, two nations that are putting aside a contentious past in the face of shared security problems.

The purpose of Biden’s meeting with the leaders of Japan‘s Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol is to demonstrate the country’s resolve in the face of North Korea’s ongoing provocative actions. Additionally, it comes at a time when the president has worked to strengthen ties with Indo-Pacific allies amid worries about a growing China.

Senior administration officials said that Biden will welcome the leaders on Friday at the remote retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains where they intend to expand defense, technological, and economic collaboration between the three nations.

Joe Biden

The leaders will decide on yearly military training, including as routine ballistic missile rehearsals, and talk about new intelligence-sharing arrangements, according to authorities. They will formalize the first-ever trilateral summit as an annual event and take measures to establish a three-way hotline for the leaders to communicate with in times of crisis.

Although the summit won’t result in a three-way collective defense agreement, it will emphasize “that a challenge to any one of the countries is a challenge to all of them,” a senior administration official said.

Although the summit won’t result in a three-way collective defense agreement, it will emphasize “that a challenge to any one of the countries is a challenge to all of them,” a senior administration official said.

According to the official, the “commitment to consult” will include reference to what they called “a fundamentally linked security environment,” where “something that poses a threat to any of us It will be released as a stand-alone document following the trilateral meeting on Friday and represents a threat to all of us.

The official stressed that it will not, however, amount to a formal alliance commitment or collective defense agreement or “change or impinge, in any way, the existing bilateral commitment” between the United States and other nation.

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