Advertisement
China’s military
ChinaMilitary

US, South Korea and Japan send clear message with new joint military drill

  • China is likely to see the multi-domain exercise – which will be launched this summer – as ‘destabilising and threatening’, analyst says

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
18
(From left) Japanese, US and South Korean defence chiefs Minoru Kihara, Lloyd Austin and Shin Won-sik meet on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday. Photo: AFP
Seong Hyeon Choi
The United States, South Korea and Japan are sending an “important strategic and political message” with their new trilateral military drill, which China is expected to view as “destabilising and threatening”, according to analysts.
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin met his Japanese and South Korean counterparts Minoru Kihara and Shin Won-sik on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore last Sunday, announcing afterwards that the multi-domain exercise would be launched this summer.

Dubbed “Freedom Edge”– from the US-South Korea “Freedom Shield” exercise and the US-Japan “Keen Edge” drill – it will take place across domains including air, maritime, underwater and cyber, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing a South Korean defence ministry official.

“They reaffirmed that trilateral exercises will be executed in a systematic manner in accordance with the multi-year trilateral exercise plan, which was established last year following the August 2023 Camp David summit,” said a joint statement issued after the meeting.

The defence chiefs pledged to develop a framework within the year to “institutionalise trilateral security cooperation, including senior-level policy consultations, information sharing, trilateral exercises, and defence exchange cooperation”.

The statement did not include further details of the planned exercise, such as when and where it would be held.

Advertisement