National security adviser Jake Sullivan stressed to reporters on Friday that President Joe Biden's new trilateral agreement with Japan and South Korea does not represent a "new NATO for the Pacific."

China — the unspoken focus of Friday's meetings at Camp David between Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol — had expressed displeasure ahead of the summit, and Sullivan fielded multiple questions on the subject during a press gaggle on Friday morning.

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"First, it's explicitly not a new NATO for the Pacific. We've said that. We will continue to underscore that, and so will both Japan and South Korea," Sullivan told reporters when asked about China's criticism. "We've had a combined 150 years of alliance cooperation with Japan and Korea, so in that sense, the work that we are doing with these two countries is not new."

"What is new is that we are now stitching all of that work together to try to enhance regional stability and security, and I would just point out that in all of those decades of cooperation we've had with Japan and the ROK, we have helped safeguard stability and security in the Indo-Pacific, and that has created the conditions for all of the countries of the region to do well, economically, by the way, including China." he continued. "We see it as a contributor, a net contributor to security in the region, to stability in the region, and to enhance prosperity in the region. And we think it will be broadly welcomed by countries throughout the Indo-Pacific from the Pacific Islands to ASEAN to South Asia."

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The three leaders will host a trilateral press conference following Friday's meetings at 3:00 p.m. Eastern time.

You can watch Sullivan's comments in full below.

Original Location: Biden's Japan-South Korea trilateral not a 'new NATO for the Pacific': White House

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