By Prashanth Parameswaran
US vice-president announces ministerial level trilateral in a further boost for cooperation.
The United States, Japan and India will elevate their trilateral dialogue to a ministerial level this fall in another boost for cooperation between the three nations, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announced Monday.
Speaking at a conference on U.S.-India relations at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, Biden said the three countries would seek to upgrade their existing trilateral dialogue — first held in 2011 — to the level of the foreign ministers. The focus, Biden indicated, would be to strengthen the East Asia Summit (EAS), an annual forum attended annually by the leaders of 18 countries including the United States and India. As the region commemorates the tenth anniversary of the EAS this year, Washington and others have been pushing to deepen its institutionalization and boost its ability to handle global crises (See: “Malaysia as ASEAN Chair in 2015: What to Expect”).
“We’re also looking to schedule a ministerial level trilateral with Japan this fall to strengthen the East Asia Summit on its tenth anniversary,” Biden said.
The U.S.-India-Japan trilateral is one of several such arrangements that the United States is pursuing with allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, Others include U.S.-Japan-Korea and U.S.-Australia-Japan, while still others are also being discussed among experts at various levels (See: “The Future of US-Japan-Vietnam Trilateral Cooperation“).
Read the full story at The Diplomat