Brussels: The top diplomats from South Korea, the United States, and Japan gathered in Brussels on Thursday for discussions, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared extensive global tariffs. This meeting occurred on the sidelines of a foreign ministerial meeting of NATO and its partner countries.
According to Yonhap News Agency, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya engaged in their second trilateral meeting since Trump assumed office in January. Their previous discussions took place in Munich in February. The agenda for the talks included addressing concerns over the newly announced U.S. tariffs.
On Wednesday, Trump introduced plans to enforce a minimum 10 percent "baseline" tariff on all imports into the U.S., along with "reciprocal" tariffs imposing 26 percent duties on South Korean imports and 24 percent on Japanese imports. The diplomats from the three nations are reportedly working on a joint statement that is anticipated to express concerns over military cooperation between North Korea and Russia concerning the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The forthcoming joint statement is also expected to address China, as the Trump administration views the trilateral cooperation as a framework not only to deter North Korean threats but also to counteract Beijing's influence.
Later in the day, Minister Cho is scheduled to participate in a session with NATO members and its Indo-Pacific partners to discuss global security challenges and the security situation in the region. This marks the fourth consecutive year that South Korea, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, as Indo-Pacific partners, have been invited to the meeting.