U.S. President Joe Biden holds a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol during the trilateral summit at Camp David near Thurmont, Md, U.S., Aug. 18. Reuters-Yonhap





From a shared commitment to crisis consultation to the "principles" of trilateral engagement, the outcomes from this week's landmark summit between South Korea, the United States and Japan are likely to put their once-fragile security cooperation on a more robust, sustainable, consistent footing, analysts said Saturday.







President Yoon Suk Yeol and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Joe Biden and Fumio Kishida, adopted a series of documents committing each other to sturdier three-way cooperation during their historic summit at Camp David in Maryland, Friday, underscoring their deepening solidarity amid North Korea's saber-rattling, China's assertiveness and Russia's war in Ukraine.







The documents entailed agreements to consult with one another in the event of a common threat and hold three-way talks between the leaders, foreign ministers, defense ministers and national security advisers at least annually, as well as an intention to hold annual "multi-domain" military exercises on a regular basis.







They represented telltale signs of the three-way partnership being institutionalized as a thaw in the relations between Seoul and Tokyo ― long fraught with historical and territorial spats ― has created an opening for the three nations to close ranks and confront shared challenges.







"We made history with the first-ever standalone summit between the leaders of our three countries as well as our commitment to meet together on the leader level annually and to have all our relative Cabinet member people meet on a regular basis from this point on, not just this year, not next year, forever," Biden told reporters at Camp David, a place that he said symbolizes the "power of new beginnings and new possibilities."







"In the months and years ahead, we're going to continue to seize those possibilities together ... unwavering in our unity and unmatched in our resolve," he added.







Just years ago, the scene of the three leaders meeting trilaterally in a stand-alone setting with such a level of unity was seldom anticipated as historical grievances stemming from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea have gotten in the way of attempts at deepening trilateral cooperation.







Even more so as tensions spilled over into economic and security domains as witnessed in export control rows between Seoul and Tokyo as well as a rancorous spat over low-altitude flybys by Japanese maritime patrol aircraft over South Korean warships in 2018 and 2019.







But the Yoon administration's decision in March to resolve the issue of Japan's wartime forced labor has given rise to a thaw in the bilateral ties, while North Korea's growing nuclear and missile threats have underscored the urgency for the two neighbors to patch things up.







In the midst of an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, Biden has been seen promoting rapprochement between Seoul and Tokyo, apparently harnessing his experience as vice president during the Barack Obama administration that helped foster a thaw between the neighbors as seen in a 2015 deal to address the issue of Japan's wartime sexual slavery.







Three Aegis-equipped destroyers ― Korea's Yulgok Yi I, left, the Benfold of the U.S. Navy, center, and the JS Atago of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ― sailing in waters off Korea's east coast, April 17, in this photo released by the Korean Navy. Yonhap





A series of agreements contained in their summit documents marked a culmination of tripartite efforts to bring three-way cooperation to what officials have called a "new height."





