For the first time this summer, South Korea, the U.S., and Japan will conduct the multi-domain training Freedom Edge simultaneously in various fields, such as air, sea, underwater, space, and cyber.
Additionally, the military cooperation between South Korea, the U.S., and Japan is accelerating as they plan to draft a document formalizing their security cooperation within the year.
According to the Ministry of National Defense on the 2nd, Defense Minister Shin Won Sik, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara reached this agreement during the trilateral meeting held on the sidelines of the 21st Asia Security Summit (Shangri-La Dialogue) in Singapore.
The name Freedom Edge is derived from combining a word each from the U.S.-Korea joint exercise Freedom Shield and the annual U.S.-Japan exercise Keen Edge. The name symbolizes the further development of trilateral military cooperation based on the Korea-U.S. and Japan-U.S. alliances.
A senior official from the Ministry of National Defense stated, “We are discussing the details of the exercise, including the location and participating forces.”
Until now, the three countries have only conducted one-time training in the ocean or air, such as Search and Rescue Exercises (SAREX), missile warning exercises, and strategic bomber escort training. This will be their first conducting a multi-domain exercise.
After agreeing to conduct regular multi-domain exercises during the trilateral summit last August, the three countries have finalized the details through several meetings and agreed to conduct the exercise this summer.
The ministers of the three countries also agreed to establish standard operating procedures for the U.S.-Korea-Japan missile warning information-sharing system to detect North Korean missile launches more quickly and accurately.
Also, they agreed to resume the trilateral TTX, a tabletop exercise, to prepare for North Korea’s nuclear missile threat. The U.S.-Korea-Japan TTX has been held since 2014 but has not been conducted since the 2020 exercise.
The three countries also agreed to draft a document within the year to institutionalize the U.S.-Korea-Japan security cooperation system to ensure that their security cooperation is not disturbed by political or external factors.
The document is expected to include the implementation of U.S.-Korea-Japan exercises and the regularization of high-level consultations. It appears to have the intention to prevent the undermining of the alliance even if former U.S. President Donald Trump, who undervalued alliances, returns to power.
Shin stated, “We had an in-depth discussion on how to institutionalize U.S.-Korea-Japan security cooperation.”