President Yoon Suk Yeol (second from left) on Aug. 18 holds a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David, a presidential retreat in Maryland located around 100 km north of Washington. (Office of the President)

By Park Hye Ri

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will hold the nation's inaugural annual conference of industry and trade ministers with the U.S. and Japan.

The ministry on Aug. 21 said the leaders of the three countries on Aug. 18 agreed on the trilateral talks through the statement dubbed the Spirit of Camp David, which was reached at the eponymous presidential retreat in Maryland located around 100 km north of Washington.

Based on the reshuffle of global supply chains, the ministry said Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will pursue a pilot project to connect early warning systems for such chains through diplomatic missions abroad. Through such efforts, the plan is to frequently share data on the supply chains of key items such as semiconductors, secondary batteries and core minerals and reinforce the monitoring system for such networks.

The three sides also agreed to set up a cooperative network to protect disruptive technology, which is expected to lead the future, and initiate this year trilateral consultations among related authorities to streamline technology protection capacity and expand cooperation in cutting-edge technology.

They will also raise cooperation among their standardization agencies to respond to the global standards competition and secure leadership in standardizing cutting-edge and newly emerging technologies.

The three countries also agreed to cooperate to ensure the successful conclusion of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

The ministry said it expects the conference to accelerate cooperation in high-tech sectors, innovative technologies and supply chains that are future growth engines like supply chains for semiconductors and batteries, technology security and standards, core minerals and biotechnology.

"The holding of the first annual ministerial meeting in history by Korea, the U.S. and Japan on cutting-edge industries and supply chains at a time of great global transition in which economy and security are combined is a very meaningful achievement," Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-Yang said. "We will do our best to secure competitiveness as a world leader by achieving trilateral cooperation."

hrhr@korea.kr