South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to form a tight-knit economic cooperation framework during a trilateral summit between their leaders at Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat in Maryland, Friday (local time), as they believe the three-way partnership can create a synergy to strengthen economic security.
in washington this morning. tell us the significance of this summit. reporter: well, we heard it from president biden himself. he wants to open up a new chapter of trilateral collaboration, putting aside the history between south korea and japan and pulling them all in a room socan consult each other from the indo-pacific region from china to south korea. that was the focus of yesterday. we heard some commitments come out of this meeting to get toward that collaboration, so that included, for example, annual military exercises, discussing intelligence-sharing agreements, and setting up a three-way hotline so that they can consult with each other and also formalizing this so it is an annual trilateral summit. when i talked to experts about
who will also get a firsthand look at the aftermath of the deadly wildfires, which, as you mentioned, have killed more than 100 people and the death toll continues to rise. now, during his trip to maui, president biden is also expected to discuss the next step in recovery efforts. the white house says, it has more than 1000 federal personnel on the ground and are encouraging survivors to apply for federal aid. so far, fema will approve more than five point $6 million in assistance. meanwhile, the presidents trip on monday. it does follow his historic summit at camp david on friday. now, that was the first time that president biden hosted foreign leaders at his presidential retreat, sending a strong message about the importance of this trilateral summit. while both countries are strong individual allies at the u.s., they do have a long history of disputes with each other. so, friday s meeting signaled a dramatic improvement in their relations. the three nations uniting over
series of commitments. that includes annual military exercises, intelligence sharing, setting up a three-way hotline for times of crisis for them to consult, as well as formalizing this trilateral summit to make it an annual summit. of course, this is significant because of the fraught history between japan and south korea. president biden tried to underscore putting that aside so they can work together, especially in their shared interest. he went onto call it a, quote, inflection point. your leadership with the full support of the united states has brought us here, because each of you understands that our world stands at an inflection point, a point where we re called to lead in new ways, to work together, to stand together. today i m proud to say our nations are answering that call. reporter: now, the president went onto say that the summit