Washington, DC - Deputy Secretary Blinken traveled to Tokyo, January 15-17, for a series of bilateral and trilateral meetings with his Japanese and Korean counterparts.

In individual meetings with Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Saiki, as well as a comprehensive trilateral meeting, the Deputy Secretary and the Vice Foreign Ministers focused intently on identifying practical ways to deepen our cooperation on a range of security, economic, and humanitarian goals.

Chief among those was our unified response to North Korea’s recent nuclear test, a flaunting of that country’s international obligations and a threat to regional stability. All parties affirmed our mutual interest in securing a robust international response to uphold a rules-based order and to promote norms that safeguard the stability of the region. The Deputy Secretary stressed that such destabilizing activity demands a response beyond business as usual.

The Deputy Secretary commended both governments for their courageous statecraft in coming to a historic agreement on the sensitive “comfort women” issue, and offered the United States’ full support for its implementation.

Additional commitments were made on all sides to explore concrete, practical steps forward together in coming months on global health security, climate change, and cyber norms.