The top uniformed officers of the Self-Defense Forces and the South Korean military have resumed their high-level dialogue, which had been suspended due to the 2018 fire radar incident involving a Japanese plane and a South Korean warship.
Gen. Yoshihide Yoshida, chief of staff of the SDF's Joint Staff, and Kim Myung-soo, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea, held talks on Wednesday. The last such meeting took place in 2016, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.
In June this year, Japan and South Korea agreed on measures to prevent a recurrence of the 2018 incident and to resume exchanges between their uniformed officers.
On Thursday, Yoshida, Kim and Gen. Charles Brown, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a trilateral meeting at the ministry in Tokyo. At the start of the meeting, Yoshida said that the meeting was the first step in not only improving relations between the three countries, but also moving to the next level of their defense cooperation.
They adopted a joint statement condemning military cooperation between Russia and North Korea and China's claims in the South China Sea and calling for stability in the Taiwan Strait.
During the meeting, Yoshida stressed that it is crucial to show strong ties among Japan, South Korea and the United States as the international community is now at a watershed over whether it can maintain order based on the rule of law.
Brown said that the trilateral meeting would send a message against regional threats.
The meeting was the first to be held outside the U.S. The next meeting will take place in South Korea.