"Track 2" participants from the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea seek to help build trilateral consensus on nuclear issues
While the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea often meet bilaterally with one another, they rarely meet in a trilateral forum, officially or unofficially, to discuss nuclear issues. In an effort to increase trilateral nuclear interaction, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (CPDNP), and the Asan Institute for Policy Studies joined in the summer of 2010 to form a high-level Track 2 nuclear dialogue between the United States, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The U.S. delegation is led by CSIS Senior Adviser Clark Murdock and supported by John Warden, Program Coordinator for the CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues.
Participants in the Trilateral Dialogues met in Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul to discuss the ways in which a trilateral approach, as opposed to one based primarily on bilateral US alliances, might allow the three countries to strengthen nonproliferation efforts and help create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, while also addressing growing regional security challenges, particularly North Korea's nuclear program and increasing Chinese assertiveness.
To help demonstrate the consensus developed across meetings, the US-Japan-ROK Trilateral Nuclear Dialogues have released two consensus statements--release on 11 May 2011 and 7 February 2012--that outline important oppertunties for greater trilateral cooperation. Both statements can be downloaded on the right.