trilateral

In June, Japan and South Korea agreed to expand trilateral military exercises with the U.S. as they seek to preserve a favorable balance of power in East Asia.

Their moves to bolster their trilateral security partnership with the United States have drawn rebukes from China.

The launch notification came as leaders of South Korea, Japan and China gathered in Seoul for their first trilateral meeting Monday.

No major announcement is expected from Monday’s trilateral South Korea-China-Japan meeting.

Since their inaugural stand-alone trilateral summit in 2008, the three Asian countries were supposed to hold such a meeting among their leaders each year.