US, Japan, Korea agree on deepening economic partnership

WASHINGTON, April 17 (KUNA) - The United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea agreed on Wednesday on expanding their partnership for achieving sustainable economic growth and financial stability for their economies and promote prosperity for the global economy.
"We will continue cooperation to strengthen our economies and promote global economic prosperity," the finance ministers of the countries vowed in a joint statement after their meeting in Washington D.C today.
They welcomed the progress in the trilateral collaboration among their development finance institutions, promising to continue staff level engagement to take these forward.
"These goals demonstrate the ongoing importance and unprecedented strength of this trilateral economic relationship between Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States," they said.
They noted that their discussion today builds on Trilateral Leaders' Summit last August in Camp David, and affirms the importance of three countries' relationship to own economies and to the global economy.
"As leading global economies, we seek continued opportunity and prosperity for our peoples, the Indo-Pacific region, and the globe through open and fair economic practices," they indicated.
"We will continue to cooperate to promote sustainable economic growth, financial stability, as well as orderly and well-functioning financial markets." They stressed that they will also continue to consult closely on foreign exchange market developments in line with our existing G20 commitments, while acknowledging serious concerns of Japan and the Republic of Korea about the recent sharp depreciation of the Japanese yen and the Korean won.
"Together, we affirm our commitment to utilize and coordinate our respective sanctions tools to impose costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine and target the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK's) weapons program," they said.
"We strongly condemn the DPRK's exports to Russia, as well as Russia's procurement of the DPRK's ballistic missiles, in direct violation of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, and call upon them to immediately cease such activities." They emphasized the importance of collaboration to overcome supply chain vulnerabilities and the possible harm to their economies from non-market economic practices of other countries, including economic coercion and overcapacity in key sectors.
"We have reaffirmed Leaders' commitment to mobilize financing for resilient supply chains and will work together to that end, including through the Partnership for Resilient and Inclusive Supply-chain Enhancement (RISE)," added the ministers.
They pointed out that they will continue to work together to evolve the multilateral development banks and strengthen other international financial institutions to better respond to key global challenges.
"Reaffirming the importance of ASEAN and Pacific Island countries, we will combine efforts to strengthen their macroeconomic and financial resilience as well as financial integrity," they vowed. (end) asj.ibi