US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hosts on Friday his counterparts from Japan Shigeru Kitamura and South Korea Suh Hoon as the Joe Biden administration nears the completion of its North Korea policy review.
Day-long trilateral consultations will be held at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and are expected to cover a wide range of regional issues and foreign policy priorities, including maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula, addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and combating climate change.
"l think the most important reason for this trilateral is that it will give Jake and our team the opportunity to discuss our policy review on North Korea," a senior US administration official told reporters.
He reiterated that the review is in its final stages.
"We have done extensive consultations across the US government, in Congress, we have consulted previous individuals and teams that had been involved in diplomacy with North Korea. We are prepared now to have some final consultations with Japan and South Korea... I think it would be fair to say that each of these countries are intensively interested in our plan," the official said.
Among specific issues likely to be raised, he mentioned recent North Korea's missile tests, the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the country and its diplomacy with China.
National advisers also intend to have an extensive discussion of technological challenges with an emphasis on semiconductors supply chains.
"Our three countries hold many of the keys to the future of semiconductors manufacturing technology and we will seek to affirm the importance of keeping these sensitive supply chains secure," the official said.
The participants will voice "very serious" concerns about violence in Myanmar and China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific, discuss preparations for the global climate summit to be hosted virtually by Biden later in April.
The meeting follows visits of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to Japan and South Korea.
It's hailed by the White House as "the first National Security Adviser-level multilateral dialogue of the Biden administration, reflecting the importance we place on broadening and deepening our cooperation on key issues and advancing our shared prosperity across a free and open Indo-Pacific".
It's planned as a private event without media availability in a closed-down area. (/Sputnik)
( With inputs from ANI )
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