US, Japan, S Korea Set to Conduct Massive Military Drills

By Staff, Agencies

The United States, Japan and South Korea have agreed to hold new massive military drills in the Asia-Pacific this summer, amid concerns over US attempts to militarize the region.

The military leaders of the three countries formally agreed to hold the inaugural Freedom Edge military drills at a meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore on Sunday.

The drills, which are expected to include naval, aerial, underwater and cyber exercises, are scheduled to be held sometime in the summer, but details on their exact timing or possible locations are yet to be provided.

The ministers “affirmed” their countries’ “enduring commitment to strengthen trilateral security cooperation to deter nuclear and missile threats” purportedly posed by North Korea, as well as alleged “dangerous and aggressive” Chinese “behavior” in the South China Sea.

North Korea’s leader has repeatedly said his government is building up its military arsenal in preparation for a war waged by the West that could “break out at any time” on the peninsula.

The ministers also “stressed the importance of the rules-based international order and reaffirmed their commitment to stand with Ukraine” which has been engaged in a war with Russia since February 2022, a Pentagon press release reads.

Washington, Tokyo and Seoul conducted their first-ever joint drills last October after US President Joe Biden and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts signed a trilateral security pact at Camp David in August.

Russia, China and North Korea have voiced their concerns about US attempts to militarize the Asia-Pacific through a growing spider’s web of security agreements.

However, senior Chinese military officials made clear Sunday that there are “limits” to China’s patience in the face of US “provocations” in the region, including in the South China Sea.

“China has maintained sufficient restraint in the face of rights infringements and provocation, but there are limits to this,” Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun told attendees of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Meanwhile, Jing Jianfeng, deputy chief of the Joint Staff department of China’s Joint Central Military Commission, noted that Washington’s security pacts with regional nations are aimed at creating “an Asia-Pacific version of NATO, to maintain American hegemony.”