Seoul official touts elevated economic cooperation among S. Korea, U.S., Japan

A senior Seoul official on Thursday hailed an elevated level of trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan on key technologies, supply chains and other economic security issues, using a rare term for the growing partnership: an economic alliance. The official made the remarks a day after the three countries launched a trilateral ministerial industry-commerce meeting in Washington, where they highlighted their commitment to cooperation in promoting the development of critical and emerging technologies, and strengthening the security and resiliency of their economies. South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Japanese Industry Minister Ken Saito attended the meeting, a follow-up to a landmark agreement that the leaders of the three countries reached during their summit at Camp David in August. "It is a very meaningful first step to establish an in-depth cooperative partnership regarding industrial technology policy," the official told South Korean reporters. "It is not that only governments have policy talks. Meetings among private-sector economic groups were also initiated. Thus, trilateral cooperation has deepened to a high level to the extent that we can call it an economic alliance," he added. Asked to delineate the alliance term, he said that it is meant to highlight a different level of economic cooperation that is now underpinned by a permanent three-way ministerial institution rather than a one-off gathering. "But it is not like a military alliance under which one automatically (comes to the aid of the other) in case of an invasion," he said. At Wednesday's inaugural meeting, the three sides discussed the protection of key cutting-edge technologies and industrial cooperation, he said. "It is fair to say that we have reached an understanding that we will work together to formulate some kind of a basic framework to strengthen supply chains," he said. Asked to comment on discussions between Seoul and Washington about export cont rols on semiconductor equipment, the official stressed that no efforts are under way to craft or enforce export measures against any particular country. In a press meeting on Thursday, Ahn cited growing global geopolitical uncertainties to underline the importance of cooperation between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan. "To respond to such risks from the external environment, the importance of cooperation in economic security and cutting-edge industries among trustworthy allies and partners, like that among South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, has been gradually increasing," he said. Source: Yonhap News Agency