South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun (R), U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (C) and Japanese Industry Minister Ken Saito pose for a photo before the three countries’ inaugural commerce-industry ministerial meeting in Washington on June 26, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
WASHINGTON, Jun. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea, the United States and Japan underscored their commitment to enhancing three-way cooperation on critical technologies, supply chains and other areas of economic security as they held their first trilateral ministerial meeting on the issue in Washington on Wednesday.
South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Japanese Industry Minister Ken Saito held the inaugural commerce-industry ministerial meeting, a follow up to a landmark summit agreement that the leaders of the three countries reached at Camp David in August.
Ahn said that the three-way meeting will set a “comprehensive and robust institutional framework” for economic cooperation encompassing industry, technology, supply chains, workforce and investment.
“Indeed, there are no better partners than Korea, the United States and Japan when it comes to advanced technologies and innovations,” he said in his opening remarks.
He added, “Additionally as nations that share the core values of freedom, human rights and the rule of law, we are well prepared to jointly overcome supply chain crisis amidst the rapidly changing global environment.”
Ahn also pointed out that the three nations are fully cognizant of economic security risks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflict and other challenges, and committed to ensuring supply chain resiliency.
“I hope our trilateral meeting serves as a channel through which to deepen our trilateral industrial collaboration jointly to address global risks and present a future-oriented vision to the whole world,” he added.
Raimondo pointed out that at the Camp David summit, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida tasked the ministers to leverage the trilateral ministerial platform to “raise our shared ambitions to a new horizon.”
“We’re doubling down our efforts to work together in the area of semiconductors, biomanufacturing, quantum, AI, robotics, advanced manufacturing,” she said.
“Now is the time for us to align more closely than ever to continue promoting the development of these critical emerging technologies, while also working together to strengthen our supply chains and protecting our mutual national and economic security interests.”
She also added a global dimension to the three-way cooperative undertaking.
“We have to work together to the benefit not just of our countries, but of the world … the safety and security of the world,” she said.
Pointing to a “more complex” international situation, Saito underlined the need to work with like-minded countries on supply chain and other issues.
(Yonhap)
