The United States, South Korea and Japan this week are conducting “advanced” trilateral air and naval exercises in East Asia, less than two weeks after the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea issued an unprecedented challenge to the US-led world order.
The Freedom Edge 2025 exercise, being conducted around South Korea’s southern Jeju Island, is aimed at “countering North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats and safeguarding peace and stability in the region,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a news release.
The US military’s Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii said the exercise will be used to “refine ballistic missile defense” between the US and its two key Asian allies and represents “the most advanced demonstration of trilateral defense cooperation to date,” without giving details.
The five-day Freedom Edge drills come as the same time as a major US-Japan bilateral exercise – Resolute Dragon – that has seen Washington deploy missile launchers with the range to hit mainland China to Japan.
Though the exercises are planned well in advance, they come less than two weeks after the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea stood shoulder to shoulder in Beijing for a military parade that showcased China’s modern weaponry – including new ballistic missiles – and unprecedented solidarity between the three nuclear-armed authoritarian partners.
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