United States-Republic of Korea (ROK)-Japan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting -- Readout Office of the Spokesperson July 22, 2026

 

United States-Republic of Korea (ROK)-Japan Trilateral Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

Readout

Office of the Spokesperson

July 22, 2026

The below is attributable to Spokesperson Tommy Pigott: 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio met today with ROK Foreign Minister 

Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu on the 

margins of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meetings in Manila.  

The Secretary and his counterparts emphasized the importance of 

working with ASEAN on issues of mutual interest, including strengthening

 defense cooperation and maritime security, advancing energy security,

 combatting cyber threats, and promoting peace and stability across 

Southeast Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific.

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers committed to intensifying joint

 efforts targeting transnational criminal organizations, including networks 

operating scam centers that defraud and endanger citizens 

across the region.  They committed to expanding trilateral discussions

 on Arctic issues, recognizing the region’s growing strategic importance.  

They also reaffirmed commitments to defense cooperation, maritime

security, and upholding freedom of navigation, and pledged continued

 trilateral consultations at all levels.

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers reaffirmed the importance of 

maintaining a unified approach toward the Democratic People’s Republic 

of Korea (DPRK), underscoring their shared commitment to the complete 

denuclearization of the DPRK and continued coordination to counter 

DPRK cyber threats and illicit activity as well as to the immediate resolution 

of the abductions issue.  They also emphasized the importance of 

maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.  The Secretary

 and Foreign Ministers noted with concern China’s lack of sufficient 

notification of their recent intercontinental ballistic missile launch into

 the Pacific Ocean. 

The Secretary and Foreign Ministers discussed next steps to implement

 the trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation on Small Modular Reactor

 Deployments in Other Countries signed in Ankara and to start 

deployment in the Indo-Pacific to advance energy diversification 

and technology cooperation.  

They also underscored the importance of economic security, reaffirmed

 shared opposition to economic coercion and the weaponization

 of supply chains, and committed to derisking and diversifying critical 

supply chains and to further trusted technology cooperation.